Medicine King’s Valley, Hidden Cloud Peak, halfway up the mountain, Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan, both carrying a medicine basket, searched around the forest looking for herbs.
This task that Old Xiao had given them was not difficult to complete. The herbs they needed to find where nothing rare and could be found growing in the wild quite easily.
The only reason they did not immediately finish was that the required age of each herb was quite high.
For each one, they needed to be at least thirty years old.
The two of them scoured the mountain for most of the afternoon, yet they still couldn’t find a few of the herbs they were searching for.
“Aunty Xiang said that for the Iron Bone Grass, ten stalks would be enough.” Dong Qing Yan cracked her fingers, her brow wrinkling slightly, “Cousin, we’re still missing one.”
Yang Kai looked around him at the forest and also frowned, “I’m afraid Hidden Cloud Peak doesn’t have any more of these herbs, we should probably go to other places to search.”
Dong Qing Yan glanced towards him and giggled, “You mean… Pill Saint’s Peak perhaps?
Yang Kai glanced back at her.
And so, the two of them, reaching a tacit understanding, began walking towards Pill Saint’s Peak.
Pill Saint’s Peak was the ultimate forbidden zone in Medicine King’s Valley, Common Disciples could not even approach to within three thousand meters of its summit; however, the region below three thousand meters was still accessible.
With their objective set, the two of them proceeded towards Pill Saint’s Peak.
“We should split up to search.” Yang Kai said as he lightly coughed.
“En.” Dong Qing Yan nodded and laughed, she clearly knew what Yang Kai wanted and naturally wouldn’t bring it up, instead simply saying, “Be careful out there.”
“I know.”
Carrying his basket, Yang Kai strode slowly towards Pill Saint’s Peak while casually looking for Iron Bone Grass and secretly observed his surroundings for any signs of movement.
Half an hour later, as Yang Kai meandered back and forth, he ‘unintentionally’ found himself only a thousand meters away from Pill Saint’s Peak.
Quietly, he looked up, Yang Kai was surprised to find a great stone statue standing at the top of Pill Saint’s Peak. Obviously, this statue was of the Pill Saint himself.
This stone statue was at least a hundred meters tall, a magnificent work of art. Even separated by a thousand meters, Yang Kai could still clearly see its top half.
The stone was worn here and there, yet after all these many years, enduring wind and rain, it was still proudly standing.
Yang Kai wanted to release his Divine Sense in order to get a better look, but he hesitated.
Although he could not see anyone right now, there was no doubt a master guarding the peak.
“Old Demon, can you sneak in and check what the situation is like?” Yang Kai asked.
“If there is an Immortal Ascension master up there, Old Servant would have no hope of escaping.” Old Demon responded.
Right now, his strength was still not too high, so he simply couldn’t hide his own Devil Qi. On top of that, his appearance was too obvious. Appearing as his Soul Breaker Awl shrouded in black gas, there was no way he could hide from an Immortal Ascension Boundary master’s eyes and Divine Sense.
Was there really no way? He had stayed on Hidden Cloud Peak for more than a month, yet he was not even clear about what mystery he had been sent here to discover.
“You there!” Just as Yang Kai expression was turning bitter, a thundering voice angrily called out from above him.
In the next instant, a man flew down from the summit, landed directly in front of Yang Kai and glared at him coldly.
This person was definitely a master at the Immortal Ascension Boundary, and his strength was not low. Although most of the disciples in Medicine King’s Valley were Alchemists, there were also a number of masters who were responsible for fighting and defense.
“What peak are you a disciple of? Don’t you know that no one is allowed within three thousand meters of Pill Saint’s Peak?” The man roared, his expression filled with anger.
Yang Kai frowned as his thoughts swirled.
“Who is your master? Did he not tell you what the consequences of approaching Pill Saint’s Peak were?”
Yang Kai eventually had no choice but to reply, “Disciple greets Senior, this Junior belongs to Old Xiao’s Hidden Cloud Peak and was sent here today to pick herbs.”
“Grandmaster Xiao?” The man looked surprised for a moment before suddenly realizing, “You are the young boy who a month ago worshiped into Hidden Cloud Peak?”
“I am the one!”
The man examined Yang Kai up and down cautiously, using his Divine Sense to sweep over him once before retracting it.
Finishing this, the icy cold look in his eyes slowly faded.
Yang Kai quickly followed up, “This Junior was only looking for herbs and unintentionally wandered too close, I hope that Senior can please forgive me.”
The man nodded before saying, “If you were any other disciple, although you would not be killed on the spot, you definitely wouldn’t be able to avoid some punishment! But seeing as you have only recently joined Medicine King’s Valley I will forgive you just this once. Do not let it happen again!”
Helpless, Yang Kai could only retreat.
It wasn’t until confirming that Yang Kai left that the man soared back up to Pill Saint’s Peak’s top and resumed his watch.
Now far away, Yang Kai looked back once more.
Confirming there really was an Immortal Ascension Boundary master on guard, how could he be feeling good? If there was a way to get close to the Myriad Drug Pond, then maybe he could have glimpsed what mysteries it hid, but now that he couldn’t even approach the mountain’s summit, there was no way for him to learn anything.
With a depressed expression upon his face, Yang Kai walked back when from afar came the sound of Dong Qing Yan arguing with someone. He quickly increased his pace, and a moment later the voices became clear.
“I discovered this stalk of Iron Bone Grass first, how can you just lay claim to it like that?” Dong Qing Yan said in a wronged tone.
Another person’s voice shot back, “Junior Sister must be joking, this herb is the property of my Medicine King’s Valley. Naturally it is first come, first serve. Moreover, if we go by the logic of what Junior Sister has just said, then all the herbs here should be ours since we discovered them first, we have lived here since childhood after all.”
“Who is your Junior Sister?” Dong Qing Yan angrily said, “I am Grandmaster Xiao’s disciple; according to seniority, all of you have to call me senior!”
*Keke…* When Dong Qing Yan shouted these words, the three young Medicine King’s Valley disciples she was arguing with had their expressions turn bitter as they were unable to refute.
Xiao Fu Sheng was quite old, so even though Dong Qing Yan was very young, she technically belonged to a higher generation than most of the Medicine King’s Valley disciples her age, and instead was closer to being sister disciples with the likes of Qin Ze, so naturally these young people were a generation below her.
“What is it? Do you little nephews want to snatch the things your Aunty fancies? Hm?” Dong Qing Yan triumphantly snorted.
“Aunty…” the lead disciples muttered in dissatisfaction, “You just had the good luck to pass Grandmaster Xiao’s test and worship into his Peak. If Grandmaster Xiao was willing to let me try that poison pill, I could certainly pass as well.”
“Hmph!” Dong Qing Yan frowned as she scoffed at these three, “Talking about what ifs are useless now. Obediently hand over this Aunty’s herbs or else, I’ll tell my master that you all… that you all intentionally offended me and refused to respect your seniors!”
As she reached the end of her speech, Dong Qing Yan became increasingly abrupt.
The several young Medicine King’s Valley disciples’ complexions immediately changed. If such an incident was reported, they would likely no longer be able to remain in Medicine King’s Valley. On top of that, the regulations imposed on Hidden Cloud Peak were quite loose, or more accurately, Hidden Cloud Peak had no regulations. It was essentially a free entity, very much unlike the other peaks which were governed by many rules, so given its master’s influence and prestige, if he decided they had committed some kind of wrong, then they had committed a wrong.
But in the end, the few of them were all older than Dong Qing Yan and had their own pride as men, so how could they be willing to simply bow down in front of this little girl?
The group leader’s eyes suddenly flashed as he thought of something, a big grin appearing on his face, “Respected Aunty, since you have worshipped into Hidden Cloud Peak, naturally you must be an Alchemy genius!”
“Obviously!” Dong Qing Yan proudly stated. Since she was a little girl she had been obsessed with Alchemy, instead of praise about her beauty, she was happier to receive praise about her Alchemy technique, so when she heard these words, her ego couldn’t help inflating.
“Respected Aunty is looking for Iron Bone Grass correct?” The man asked again.
“En!”
“There aren’t that many Iron Bone Grasses in Medicine King’s Valley right now. I wonder how many stalks Respected Aunty has found?”
“I require ten, but have only found two stalks so far…”
“Hoo, what a coincidence, we happen to have collected a number of Iron Bone Grasses, it should be enough to satisfy Respected Aunty’s requirements.”
“So you’re willing to give them to me?” Dong Qing Yan smiled brightly, suddenly feel that these nephews of hers weren’t so annoying anymore.
The lead man also showed a big grin, “Giving them all to you is naturally impossible… however, nephew is willing to use these Iron Bone Grasses as a wager in a contest. Let us exchange pointers and if Respected Aunty can win, not only can I offer up our stalks of Iron Bone Grass, if any other herbs we have on us catches Respected Aunty’s eye then you may take them too. How about it, is Respected Aunty willing to play?”
Hearing this challenge, Dong Qing Yan frowned as she bit her lip.
Suddenly from the side, Yang Kai’s voice rang out, “If you want to exchange pointers, I will take you on!”
“Escort Yang!” Dong Qing Yan expression suddenly became bright again, smiling as she waved towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s image flashed as he suddenly appeared in front of Dong Qing Yan, glancing at the three Medicine King’s Valley disciples in front of him, “You want to exchange pointers?”
“It’s him! The other guy who managed to pass Grandmaster Xiao’s disciple test, he’s also a disciple of Hidden Cloud Peak!” One of the Medicine King’s Valley disciples shouted, his face filled with envy and jealousy, as he desperately wished he could take this no-name’s place.
“Bullying a woman only shows how incompetent you are, why don’t you try me instead?” Yang Kai glared at the trio.
Yang Kai acting so rampantly immediately provoked these three Medicine King’s Valley disciples’ anger, and the lead man shouted, “Good, since you asked for it, I will let you see my ability!”
“Wait a minute!” Yang Kai raised his hand and asked, “What you just said about betting your Iron Bone Grasses, does that still count?”
“Of course it still counts!”
“Excellent.” Yang Kai nodded, “You three come together.”
The three disciples couldn’t help being stunned by these words. Each of them looked at the other two in confusion.
“Please enlighten me!” Yang Kai voice had hardly faded before his body disappeared. The three disciples only caught a glimpse of a shadow before a heavy impact sent each of them flying. In the blink of an eye, the three Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists were sprawled out on the ground crying out miserably.
“So weak?” Yang Kai frowned as he looked at these three suspiciously.
Yang Kai had thought that since these people dared to act so rampantly, they must have possessed at least some ability, but little did he expect that none of them could withstand a single one of his strikes. On top of that, the attacks he had made were merely meant to test the waters, so he had held back at least half his strength.
“You… why the hell did you hit us!?” One of the Alchemists who had just been knocked down roared as he trembled and pointed towards Yang Kai in both fear and anger.
“Nonsense!” Yang Kai sneered, in an exchange of pointers how could there not be any hitting?
Not bothering with them anymore, Yang Kai went up and opened the trio’s medicine baskets, plucking out all of their Iron Bone Grasses and placing them into his bag.
“Escort Yang, let’s go!” Dong Qing Yan’s pretty face was flushed bright red as she pulled Yang Kai and dashed towards Hidden Cloud Peak.
“How dare you deceive us!” Desolate cries filled with unwillingness rang out from behind them. “I’ll tell Grandmaster Xiao about this and let him punish you!”
“What the hell are they on about?” Yang Kai frowned. “Didn’t they want to exchange pointers? Why are they whining about losing now, it’s their own fault for being so weak.”
*Keke…* Dong Qing Yan’s face became even redder as Yang Kai spoke.
“Why do we have to run away? These Iron Bone Grasses are what they wagered in that fight, it’s not like we robbed them or something, we won them fair and square!.”
“Stop talking, you’re making us lose face.”
Only after they had fled all the way back to Hidden Cloud Peak did the two slow down, Yang Kai suspiciously looking at Dong Qing Yan, his face filled with confusion, not able to understand why she was blushing so red.
“Why did you do that?” Yang Kai frowned.
Dong Qing Yan glared back at him but managed to calm herself after taking a few deep breaths, carefully explaining, “Silly cousin, when Alchemists say they want to exchange pointers, they’re referring to competition in Alchemy, both sides take out the same set of materials and then refine them into pills. The one who produces the highest number of pills at the highest level of quality in the shortest amount of time is the winner, not like…”
While talking, she raised her small fists and swung them about a few times, “It’s not like that…”
Yang Kai was stunned; his face couldn’t help turning a bright shade of crimson, quietly whispering, “They never said anything about that, how was I to know?”
Dong Qing Yan smiled wryly, “It’s common sense amongst Alchemists… Fortunately, you didn’t go all out, so none of them were actually hurt. If you had really wounded them, the consequences would be quite serious.”
Done explaining, Dong Qing Yan rubbed her forehead helplessly, “Sure enough, cultivators following the Martial Path are really just a group of muscle heads who only know how to fight…”
Yang Kai was also very embarrassed, now understanding why those three disciples were so excited when he agreed to an exchange of pointers, as if they were looking at an idiot who didn’t know how to write the word dead.
They thought they were going to compete in Alchemy…
So the beating they received really was him wronging them.
Aware of his wrong, Yang Kai remained silent the rest of the way back, occasionally hearing Dong Qing Yan burst into giggles as she recalled the events that had just transpired.
Arriving back at Hidden Cloud Peak’s summit, the two of them handed the herbs they had collected to the two beautiful women, ate a medicinal meal which was prepared for them, then went back to their own houses to rest.
The next day, before Yang Kai had even left his residence, a strong medicinal fragrance wafted over to him; as soon as this fragrance entered his nose, he felt a calm relaxing sensation envelop his body.
Curious, Yang Kai opened his door, went out, and followed the scent to a nearby hut.
Looking around, he found a pair of rooms not far away, each one containing a large steaming basin in which a mixture of herbs was being brewed. Each of these basins had one of the two beautiful women tending to it, fanning the flames and stirring the water, their brows covered in a thin layer of sweat.
“Is Master going to use these to refine some pills?” Dong Qing Yan had also come out, looking around curiously, her two big eyes flashing with an excited light.
Yang Kai observed for a while before asking, “Do you want us to help?”
Hearing this, the beautiful Aunty Xiang got up and looked towards the young pair with a smile and nodded, “Please.”
Yang Kai quickly rolled up his sleeves and inquired, “What should we do?”
However, Aunty Xiang simply smiled, “You don’t need to do anything for the time being, we’re actually preparing these medicinal baths for you two; they’ve been boiling like this since last night but should be just right very soon.”
“Prepared for us?” Yang Kai was surprised.
Aunty Lan nodded, “Yes. This past month, Old Xiao has been configuring the herbs required for these baths; in fact, the herbs you collected yesterday have also been included.”
“I also have one?” Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling touched. Old Xiao preparing such an elaborate treatment for Dong Qing Yan was only to be expected, Yang Kai understood that, after all, Dong Qing Yan had worshipped him as her master and would one day become the successor to his mantle, but he too receiving the same treatment surprised Yang Kai.
But to his surprise, Aunty Xiang just nodded and said, “Naturally, since the two of you came to Hidden Cloud Peak you are both our Hidden Cloud Peak’s people. The two of you should eat something first and then prepare yourselves; return here in an hour.”
Yang Kai’s jaw slackened a bit, his eyes filling with gratitude.
Dong Qing Yan and his breakfasts had already been prepared in the kitchen and were still steaming, clearly showing they had been cooked just recently. While eating this delicious meal, Yang Kai couldn’t help watching Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan busily working on the two medicinal baths, spontaneously feeling a faint warmth rise up within him.
This warm and happy feeling was something he had not experienced in a long time.
After an hour, Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan each entered one of the rooms.
Aunty Xiang was in charge of his room and under her instructions Yang Kai removed his robes down to a thin pair of pants and jumped into the bath.
Towards these two beautiful women who resided on Hidden Cloud Peak, Yang Kai held great respect.
Both of them had silently given Hidden Cloud Peak over twenty of their years. They had dedicated some of their best and most beautiful years to this place, but when the world heard of Hidden Cloud Peak, the only name they knew was Xiao Fu Sheng. No one knew or bothered to know anything about these two women.
Even Yang Kai himself, after staying on Hidden Cloud Peak for a whole month, his daily life and living arrangements being meticulously cared for by them, only knew to call them Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan, not even knowing their full names.
So even though at the moment he was baring his upper body before them, he didn’t have the slightest unnatural behaviour.
“Aunty Xiang, now what should I do?” Yang Kai, feeling the warmth in his surroundings, physically and mentally comfortable, couldn’t help but ask.
“Just circulate the Secret Art Old Xiao passed to you! Old Xiao specifically designed that Secret Art to allow you to properly absorb the effects of this medicinal bath and actually has no other use for him. Old Xiao spent a great deal of effort to gather together the required herbs for these baths and there are only two of them, so you must be very careful not to waste them so you can live up to Old Xiao’ s kindness.”
“I understand!” Yang Kai said as his face became solemn, closing his eyes and beginning to circulate that unnamed Secret Art.
The moment he began operating the Secret Art, Yang Kai felt as if his every single one of his body’s hundreds of millions of pores opened, the medicinal baths effects flooding into him like millions of sharp needles.
Omnipresent and pervasive.
There was nowhere on his body that did not experience this sensation.
Involuntarily, Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled, his body trembling slightly.
On the other hand, from next door, Dong Qing Yan’s voice cried out.
After all, Dong Qing Yan was still just a young girl and had grown up spoiled, when would she have ever had to endure such pain?
As the sound of Aunty Lan’s comforting voice also drifted over from next door, Aunty Xiang carefully observed Yang Kai’s reaction, her beautiful eyes flashing a dignified light, secretly impressed.
Old Xiao had told them before that the effects of this medicinal bath on one’s body and their cultivation aptitude were very significant, but the pain that had to be endured was akin to an inhuman torture. He had been worried about Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan’s ability to bear this, but now it seems that Yang Kai would have no problem with it.
As time passed, the pain only seemed to strengthen, not only appearing on the outside of his body, but also coming from his meridians, five viscera and six organs.
It was like there were tens of millions of ants crawling around inside of him, biting his body.
As big drops of sweat rolled down his forehead, Yang Kai’s skin became blood red, yet he never stopped circulating the unnamed Secret Art.
This kind of torturous pain continued for an entire hour before suddenly decreasing sharply.
It was as if the medicinal effects had somehow reached their limit and the resulting pain they had caused rapidly faded; but a moment later there wasn’t even any discomfort left.
What replaced it was a comfortable, pleasant sensation.
Yang Kai couldn’t help taking a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes as a brilliant light flashed across them.
Aunty Xiang watched all of this approvingly, smiling towards Yang Kai for a moment before nodding and saying, “It looks like Old Xiao underestimated the two of you, you managed to endure that well.”
As she spoke, her hands never stopped moving, tossing various new herbs into the medicinal bath before once again fanning the flames below.
Since the pain faded away, Yang Kai found that there was no longer any need for him to consciously operate the unnamed Secret Art; instead, just by sitting in the bath, the medicinal effects of the herbs would be absorbed into his body and would automatically circulate.
With each revolution, Yang Kai could feel his physique improve and become more solid; his meridians became wider and more elastic while the True Qi in his body became more and more pure.
“Aunty Xiang, the rest of this medicinal bath should be left Young Lady Dong.” Yang Kai said as he felt a pang of guilt in his heart, he had come to Hidden Cloud Peak not to learn Alchemy but for an ulterior purpose, yet Old Xiao still did not treat him as an outsider even though he was not his disciple.
However, Aunty Xiang simply chuckled, “This medicinal treatment Old Xiao created is too overbearing so it can only be used once in a cultivator’s lifetime, if your family’s Young Lady were to attempt it a second time, her meridians would not be able to handle it.”
Pausing for a moment, Aunty Xiang continued, “In fact, you don’t have to burden yourself over this so much. Old Xiao is actually quite optimistic about you; it is just that the path you pursue is different from most Alchemists.”
“What kind of effect is this medicinal bath supposed to have?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
Aunty Xiang pondered briefly before replying, “According to Old Xiao, this bath’s main purpose is to fundamentally improve a cultivator’s meridians, so that afterwards, when one cultivates, they can more easily quench their Yuan Qi, allowing it to become more pure.”
“Is that related to Alchemy?” Yang Kai frowned, quietly thinking back to words Old Xiao had spoken when they had first met.
“About the Alchemic Path, many people are wrong, even this Old Master is wrong!”
Yang Kai still vividly remembered the frustration and regret that filled Old Xiao voice back then.
To his spontaneous question, Aunty Xiang nodded, “Naturally it is related to Alchemy. Old Xiao also only realized this truth in recent years just… for him this enlightenment came too late. Alchemists, in the end, are also cultivators, they too need pure Yuan Qi to fully display their abilities when trying to refine good pills, so he specifically set his disciple recruitment test to screen for that.”
Brushing the hair back behind her ear, Aunty Xiang thought for a moment before saying, “Old Xiao once said, if he received a successor, he would first teach him a fundamental truth.”
“What truth?”
“Before reaching the Immortal Ascension Boundary one must not practice Alchemy!” Aunty Xiang grinned, “Perhaps this thinking is not completely correct, but it is still a valuable insight into the Alchemic Path that Old Xiao discovered.”
Before Immortal Ascension, no practicing Alchemy! No wonder Old Xiao didn’t teach Dong Qing Yan anything about Alchemy this past month, and instead had been completely focused on the growth of her cultivation.
“If you are determined to learn the art of Alchemy, Old Xiao would very willingly teach you!” Aunty Xiang smiled.
Old Xiao wanting his successor to reach the Immortal Ascension Boundary before cultivating their Alchemic Path meant that any disciple of his had to have a passion for the Martial Path as well.
Yang Kai’s desire to reach the Martial Peak was clearly in line with this condition.
“I appreciate Old Xiao’s care but unfortunately I cannot.” Yang Kai shook his head; before his cultivation had reached a certain height he refused to have any other pursuits distract him.
Alchemists were indeed distinguished, garnering admiration from around the world, but this was not the path Yang Kai sought.
“Oh yes, I heard yesterday you exchanged pointers with Hidden Cloud Peak, Elder Duan’s three disciples?” Aunty Xiang quickly changed the topic to avoid putting Yang Kai into an awkward position.
Yang Kai’s face instantly went red as he scratched his cheek and whispered, “I didn’t know that when they said ‘exchange pointers’ they meant about Alchemy…”
Aunty Xiang couldn’t help trembling slightly as she laughed, only able to compose herself a good while later, “Now there are rumors outside that one of the disciples that came to Hidden Cloud Peak to learn Alchemy is an underhanded rogue!”
“Did I make trouble for Old Xiao?” Yang Kai asked guiltily.
Aunty Xiang shook her head, “No, you didn’t injure them, but this morning someone did come here to complain. Well, just remember not to let something like this happen again, otherwise there may be an issue.”
“Of course, of course!” Yang Kai nodded again and again.
This event was simply too embarrassing, any time he thought back on it he couldn’t help blushing.
For an entire day, Aunty Xiang was busy tending to the fire, from time to time tossing additional herbs into the bath. It wasn’t until evening, panting slightly, a fragrant sweat dripping down her neck, that she informed Yang Kai that the treatment had finished and he could come out, return to his room to rest.
Having soaked in the bath the whole night, Yang Kai could feel his entire body infused with the medicinal effects.
Arriving back at his room, he quickly closed his eyes and examined the changes in his physique.
His realm had advanced slightly and his True Qi had also become a bit purer; however, the most significant improvements were to his meridians and constitution.
Aunty Xiang had told him that the most important role of this medicinal bath was to improve a person’s foundations, especially their meridians, which would allow them to more easily cultivate and quench their Yuan Qi in the future, allowing it to become more vigorous and pure.
The benefit of this was not immediately apparent, but over the course of one’s life it would no doubt become significant.
Upon circulating his True Yang Secret Art, Yang Kai was surprised to find that it too could revolve faster than before. Not only that, the rate at which his body absorbed the surrounding World Energy was also a little bit quicker.
Such a change was very subtle, but like water trickling onto a stone, many grains of sand would eventually build a tower. Accumulated over many years of cultivation, the effect would be extraordinary.
That this medicinal bath and magical Secret Art, being able to do all this showed just how Heaven defying Xiao Fu Sheng’s methods were.
In terms of combat strength, in this world his name was likely not worth mentioning, but as one of the few Mysterious Grade Top Ranking Alchemists alive today, his technique and achievements in Alchemy had reached the very peak. His insights into Alchemy were so great that they could even be described as a work of god.
The next morning, Xiao Fu Sheng called Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan to his house.
Once more he did not pass them anything related to Alchemy, but instead a set of exercises designed to improve their Yuan Qi control.
Yuan Qi control was of paramount importance to Alchemy because when an Alchemist was refining a pill they would use their own Yuan Qi to control all the various aspects and processes. The slightest misstep would lead to a massive difference in results. If one wanted to refine a good pill, subtle Yuan Qi manipulation was essential.
Controlling one’s Yuan Qi was also strongly related to the cultivator’s battle prowess. In a fight, the strength of one’s martial skills depended greatly on one’s Yuan Qi control.
Anyone strong would know how to effectively utilize their own Yuan Qi to the point of mastery. Effective use of one’s Yuan Qi would allow a skilled cultivator to display the full might of their martial skills using only half the effort! Mastering this kind of control was extremely important. It allowed a cultivator to attack more explosively and sustain themselves longer in combat.
So whether it was Yang Kai or Dong Qing Yan, both of them studied these exercises seriously.
This set of techniques was something Xiao Fu Sheng had created over the course of his life while studying the Alchemic Path; it could be said to be one of his most valuable insights and now, without reservation, he had gifted it to them.
Teaching them for several days, interspersed with periods of time for self enlightenment, Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan gradually became familiar with these exercises; all that remained after that was for them to cultivate diligently.
At this time, Yang Kai suddenly remembered something Xiao Fu Sheng had once said.
“Who says an Alchemist cannot stand at the Martial Peak?”
When Old Xiao had said these words, his face had been filled with a deep self-confidence.
Through these methods of Yuan Qi manipulation, it was indeed possible to spy on the mysteries of the pinnacle of Martial Arts.
Yang Kai couldn’t help being in awe! Every word Old Xiao had said to them seemed to contain profound meaning and insights more valuable than any worldly treasure.
Over the next few days, Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan’s ability to manipulate their Yuan Qi became increasingly sophisticated. Yang Kai also found that these exercises not only allowed him to better control his True Qi, they also subtly smelted it, leading to a very slight yet gradual increase in purity.
He now faintly felt that his True Element Second Stage cultivation had reached its peak and there was only a thin line to cross before reaching the Third Stage.
On this day, when Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan were outside their houses practicing their Yuan Qi control by executing their own martial skills, they surprisingly found that the various other peaks around them seemed to be bustling with activity as many disciples of Medicine King’s Valley as well as numerous outsiders were scurrying about.
“What’s happening?” Dong Qing Yan stopped and looked around curiously, “How come there are so many outsiders within the Medicine King’s Valley grounds?”
In response, Yang Kai could only shake his head, apparently also puzzled.
“The Alchemist Summit will start a few days from now.” Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan strolled over and softly explained.
“Although Medicine King’s Valley usually doesn’t allow outsiders to enter its inner grounds, this place is, after all, inextricably linked with all of the world’s Great Forces, so every time such a summit is held, many cultivators will come to the various Peaks to visit with the Elders.”
Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan suddenly remembered, since they entered Hidden Cloud Peak till now, the two of them had spent their time in near isolation and hadn’t noticed that many days had quickly passed by. They were completely unaware until now that the Alchemist Summit was about to begin.
Aunty Xiang chuckled loudly, “All the various Peaks are quite lively around this time except for the forbidden Pill Saint’s Peak and our Hidden Cloud Peak!”
“En, this place always remains a bastion of calm!” Aunty Lan also smiled.
Dong Qing Yan couldn’t help giggling, “If Master was to open his doors to outsiders, I’m sure everyone would come rushing here! It wouldn’t be long before all the other peaks were empty.”
Aunty Xiang put on a scolding look and shot back, “Then I and your Aunty Lan would soon faint from exhaustion! With so many visitors, we’d soon be pouring water instead of tea, how could we let such a thing happen?”
Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan were very fond of Dong Qing Yan, the two beautiful women were neither married nor had children, so they looked upon Dong Qing Yan as if she were their own daughter and took very good care of her.
The little girl was also very relaxed around them, never once looking down upon them because they were ordinary people or because of their status as maids, even behaving very politely to them.
As soon as Aunty Xiang had finished speaking, Xiao Fu Sheng’s door suddenly opened, accompanied by a burst of laughter, “It seems that my Hidden Cloud Peak is peaceful again today.”
“Master!”
“Old Xiao!”
Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan quickly cupped their fists as they saw Xiao Fu Sheng smile and emerge from his house, apparently in high spirits.
“Master, has something good happened?” Dong Qing Yan asked in a polite and flattering tone, causing Yang Kai to feel a slight prickle in his heart, this little cousin of his always acted so casually in front of him but in front of Xiao Fu Sheng, Aunty Xiang, and Aunty Lan she was quite well-behaved.
“A friend from far away is coming to visit, naturally I am happy.” Xiao Fu Sheng replied.
Dong Qing Yan’s eyes fluttered slightly at these words, “I thought master did not like it when outsiders visited but I suppose that is not so.”
Xiao Fu Sheng chuckled at his little disciple’s comment, “It all depends on who is visiting; those who come here simply to ask me to do things for them I naturally don’t welcome, but the guest who is coming soon is not the same.”
“Hahaha… Old Man Xiao, this time this old master has also come here to ask you to do something for him; you won’t chase me away now will you?” Accompanied by a burst of laughter, a silhouette quickly approached the summit from the mountain road.
Hearing this voice, Yang Kai’s face couldn’t help cramping up, his expression becoming strange.
[This voice… could it be… but how…]
Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan frowned slightly in surprise as they heard someone call their master ‘Old Man Xiao’, what was also strange was that neither of them could identify who this strange visitor was.
In this world, even the patriarchs of the Eight Great Families would respectfully call him Grandmaster Xiao!
No one would dare be so brazen as to call him Old Man Xiao!
But not only was he no annoyed by this rude fellow, Old Xiao even quipped back in a joking tone, “How could this Old Xiao dare turn you away? This old master owes you his life.”
With just these few words, Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan suddenly understood, this man turned out to be Old Xiao’s saviour, quickly fixing their pretty faces and preparing to respectfully greet him.
From below, the figure flickered slightly before instantly crossing the last few thousand meters between them, suddenly appearing in front of everyone.
However, it wasn’t just one person, there were two.
First was a white haired old man who appeared to be around the same age as Old Xiao, his smiling face showing a few wrinkles here and there, and following him was a pretty young woman. This woman had a pair of mesmerising eyes filled with pure innocence that seemed to shimmer like stars; donning a pale green dress, her jade like forehead was adorned with a sky blue gem while the rest of her face was concealed behind thin chiffon veil, obscuring her true countenance from those around her.
As the wind fluttered, causing her veil and dress to sway gently, making it seem like she was a floating immortal fairy, untouched by a single speck of dust.
Yang Kai was startled, his mouth showing a strange smile as his eyes instantly stared at this masked woman.
On the other side, the woman felt this pair of aggressive, unscrupulous eyes gazing at her, her eyebrows wrinkling slightly as she glanced towards Yang Kai.
But the instant she did, her star like eyes flashed with surprise, her delicate lashes rapidly fluttering as she couldn’t believe who she was seeing.
Four eyes suddenly met, Yang Kai warmly smiled while the woman’s eyes also became crescent-shaped.
This woman was none other than Xia Ning Chang, and the visiting old man turned out to be Meng Wu Ya.
“Brother Meng, it has been too long!” Stepping forward, Old Xiao respectfully cupped his fists.
Meng Wu Ya smiled back, also quickly cupping his fists, “Xiao… uh… ke, keke, kekeke…”
After only managing to speak a single word of greeting, it was like Meng Wu Ya suddenly got a bone stuck in his throat, coughing violently, feeling dizzy, like his consciousness was blurring.
“Master!” Xia Ning Chang was quite shocked, quickly patting Meng Wu Ya’s back.
“Brother Meng, have you been injured?” Xiao Fu Sheng looked dignified, coming forward and reading Meng Wu Ya’s pulse.
Meng Wu Ya quickly waved, continuing to cough for a while before finally composing himself, his expression like that of one whose father had just died, dumbfoundedly staring towards Yang Kai, “Smelly brat, what the hell are YOU doing here?”
[Fuck! This really was a case of enemies often meeting on narrow roads and evil spirits will continue to haunt one’s soul.]
More than a year ago, along with Ling Tai Xu, he had sent this little bastard out to Nether Mountain for life experience and had not seen him since. For this past year, although at the beginning his treasured apprentice was dispirited and sighing all day long, through his dedicated teaching, she had finally managed to bring herself out from the shadow of longing, and her cultivation had rapidly progressed.
Originally, Meng Wu Ya had thought that his disciple had certainly forgotten about Yang Kai, but now they had met once again in this completely unexpected place.
Looking into the eyes of his treasured apprentice, how could Meng Wu Ya not realize that she had never forgotten about Yang Kai, but had instead just been suppressing her thoughts and feelings about him deep inside her heart?
Perhaps, all this time, when no one was around, she had silently been thinking about him, only deepening the longing she felt.
At this moment, Meng Wu Ya understood. Love was like wine, the more it aged, the richer it became!
At this moment, Meng Wu Ya wanted to turn around and leave, but obviously it was too late.
At this moment, Meng Wu Ya couldn’t wait to slap his face a dozen times!
Recently, he had seen that Xia Ning Chang was feeling somewhat sullen, so he had brought her to Medicine King’s Valley to attend its Alchemist Summit and sightsee, how could he have imagined that this little bastard would be here too?
[Fuck, why did you have to bring her here, why did you have to be so meddlesome!?] Meng Wu Ya silently cursed, feeling a little dead inside.
On Hidden Cloud Peak, Meng Wu Ya’s face was filled with frustration while Xia Ning Chang gently comforted her master as she giggled softly.
Xiao Fu Sheng also wore a quirky expression, quickly glancing back and forth between Xia Ning Chang and Yang Kai. Aunt Xiang and Aunt Lan by his side now completely confused.
After a moment, Dong Qing Yan quietly came up next to Yang Kai and poked him, “Hey… stop staring so much at each other. You are embarrassing everyone else.”
“Do you know each other?” Xiao Fu Sheng looked around and smiled.
Yang Kai nodded slightly, smiling as he performed a disciple’s greeting, “Treasurer Meng …”
Then turned around and gentle called, “Little Senior Sister!”
Xia Ning Chang exquisite ears completely flushed; slightly lowered her head and softly whispered, “Junior Brother…”
Her voice trembled, obviously disturbed.
“Keke…” Meng Wu Ya quickly coughed twice, forcefully interrupting this ambiguous atmosphere; then, not even bothering to return Yang Kai’s greeting, he shifted his eyes, “Old Man Xiao, a guest has come to visit you from far away, do you plan to have this old man stand around outside all day?”
Laughing, Xiao Fu Sheng quickly waved, “Brother Meng jests, please come inside to speak!”
Although he had a belly full of questions, Xiao Fu Sheng was still an experienced man, how could he not see that Meng Wu Ya’s apprentice and Yang Kai had some kind of subtle relationship? When they had first met, this little girl was only about twelve years old; at the time, Meng Wu Ya treated her as if she was his own daughter, and now this little girl was experiencing her first love. Obviously Meng Wu Ya would be concerned about this matter.
[It’s understandable! Such a pure and innocent girl, if she had worshipped him as her master, he would certainly be worried about her suffering any wrong.]
Meng Wu Ya and Xiao Fu Sheng slowly walked to his house, Xia Ning Chang nodding softly towards Yang Kai before keeping up with them.
Gently, Meng Wu Ya’s pointed voice drifted over, “My dear disciple, just look at this little bastard, he’s really too romantically unrestrained, everywhere he goes he had beauties accompany him, you have to carefully see his true nature.”
Xia Ning Chang simply nodded warmly.
“This old man…” Dong Qing Yan pursed her lips, a look of discontent appearing on her face.
Aunt Xiang and Aunt Lan couldn’t help chuckling, glancing teasingly towards Yang Kai for a while before also walking towards the house to pour tea for their guests.
“Cousin! Who is she!?” Waiting until they were the only ones left outside, Dong Qing Yan asked curiously.
“She’s a Senior Sister from High Heaven Pavilion.” Yang Kai replied lightly.
“Is she really just your Senior Sister?” Dong Qing Yan grinned meaningfully.
However, Yang Kai only glanced at her before walking back to his room.
Soon Dong Qing Yan was the only one standing there, pursing her lips as she pouted slightly. Her eyes glancing back and forth between the two houses for a moment before snorting, “Hmph, you think I can’t see what’s going on? I’m not just a child anymore!”
Thinking to herself for a little while, she suddenly began laughing mischievously.
Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang coming to Medicine King’s Valley was something completely unexpected for Yang Kai.
Although the Alchemist Summit would be held soon, and Yang Kai had thought that High Heaven Pavilion would also participate, but his Little Senior Sister possessed a special constitution, the Alchemist of the younger generation were simply unworthy of competing with her, if she were to participate, there would be no need to hold this Alchemist Summit, first place could be none other than her.
After a moment, his door was softly knocked upon. Yang Kai smiled, stood up, and opened the door, and sure enough, Xia Ning Chang waiting there.
“Junior Brother!” Xia Ning Chang’s star-like eyes flashed with joy as they reunited, gently calling out to him.
“Come inside first.” Yang Kai said as he opened the way.
Xia Ning Chang nodded and, like a fragrant wind, lightly stepped inside.
Yang Kai gently closed the door behind her.
“How come you’re here?” Yang Kai asked as he poured her a glass of water.
“Master said that the best Alchemist in this world lives here, so he brought me here so I could ask him for some guidance!” Xia Ning Chang responded as she quietly sat there; having gone more than a year without seeing him, obviously she felt a little nervous, but more than anything else she felt happy.
“En, Old Xiao certainly is the best Alchemist in this world.” Yang Kai nodded in agreement.
“How is it that Junior Brother is here?” Xia Ning Chang asked, “Didn’t you go to Nether Mountain?”
“It’s a long story,” Yang Kai smiled wryly, not elaborating, instead just saying, “There’s just one thing I want to do here.”
“Something you want to do? Can I help you?”
Yang Kai didn’t want to hide his plans from her, but around his house he could faintly feel a misty Divine Sense floating about; how could he not know it was Meng Wu Ya’s surveillance.
Grinning meaningfully, Yang Kai beckoned to Xia Ning Chang, leaning in towards her, bringing his mouth right up next to her ear.
Xia Ning Chang’s heart raced, her body suddenly stiffening up, blushing a bright shade of crimson, wanting to pull back but not daring to move, even subconsciously holding her breath.
Not seeming to care about her embarrassment, Yang Kai continued bringing his lips closer to her glowing red ear and softly whispered, “I want to go to Pill Saint’s Peak and see the Myriad Drug Pond.
“Uh…en…” Xia Ning Chang stuttered, her voice as quiet as a mosquito, replying unconsciously, her delicate fingers tightly gripped her cup, likely not having heard a word Yang Kai had said.
“Keke… kekeke…” In another house not far away, Meng Wu Ya began coughing violently again.
“Brother Meng!” Opposite of Meng Wu Ya, Xiao Fu Sheng watched dumbfounded, helplessly trying to comfort him, “Some things must be left to take their course, even if you want to prevent it there is nothing you can do.”
“I know…” Meng Wu Ya said wearily, nodding again and again, quietly retrieving his Divine Sense.
Although he was concerned about his apprentice’s wellbeing, he understood that he could not always spy upon her private life. But just thinking about how tens of meters away, his precious daughter and that damn little bastard boy were together, alone, in a room, getting closer to one another, Meng Wu Ya couldn’t help feeling unwilling.
[Haa… what the eyes do not see, the heart does not grieve!]
In the other house, Xia Ning Chang’s body remained stone stiff, still feeling the hot breath that had brushed past her ear, her heart beating fiercely, unable to react until quite a long time has passed, “Ah… Junior Brother you want to go…”
“Shh…”
Xia Ning Chang suddenly went silent, a moment later saying, “I have to go there too.”
“You’re going to visit there?” Yang Kai looked at her with surprise.
Xia Ning Chang nodded softly, “Master said that a profound truth is hidden there, possibly the essence of an Alchemy Grandmaster’s lifetime of experience, so he wanted to let me study it, I just don’t know if the elders here will be willing to accommodate such a request.
“If it is Little Senior Sister, Old Xiao might agree!” Yang Kai frowned and thought about it, a smile slowly appearing on his face.
He did not know what mysteries were hidden within the Myriad Drug Pond, but if Xia Ning Chang was able to carefully explore it first, it would be easier for him to act later.
Nothing would be better than him being able to go there himself, but even if Old Xiao had been very good to him, it was impossible to expect him to open the Myriad Drug Pond to him. On the other hand, Meng Wu Ya had once saved his life, and Xia Ning Chang possessed the Sacred Spirit Medicine Body. Making an exception so that she may visit the Myriad Drug Pond was not unreasonable.
[Little Senior Sister is always saving me, this time too.] Yang Kai thought to himself.
Just as he was feeling happy, Yang Kai suddenly looked towards the door, grinning deviously as he sent out a True Qi wave.
As soon as this wave hit the door, it suddenly burst open.
“Ah!” Dong Qing Yan who had eavesdropping outside by been pressing her ear against the door suddenly yelped as she lost her support and fell face first into the house.
“What are you sneaking around for?” Yang Kai said as he stared at her.
Dong Qing Yan quickly picked herself up, patted down the dust on her clothes, and giggled impishly, staring towards Xia Ning Chang with great interest.
“This is…” Xia Ning Chang curiously asked as she quietly got up.
“My cousin … the Dong Family’s precious Young Lady.” Yang Kai replied.
“Dong Family? Last time there was a member of the Dong Family who came to High Heaven Pavilion …”
“The very same Dong Family; the one who visited High Heaven Pavilion last time was her older brother.”
“So you are Young Lady Dong.”
“No need to be so polite, there are no outsiders here…” Dong Qing Yan didn’t think of herself as an outsider. Carefully examining the beautiful woman in front of her, staring at Xia Ning Chang’s slightly blushing face and smiling, “Are you… my sister-in-law?”
Xia Ning Chang nearly fell over, her heart suddenly thrown into chaos. Glancing back towards Yang Kai before frantically waving her hands, “N-n… no, yo… your sister-in-law is… is someone else…”
“Hmm… it seems like you will be sooner or later though.” Dong Qing Yan nodded her head slightly, her voice filled with confidence.
Straightening her back and pretending to lightly cough, Dong Qing Yan shuffled her way over to a nearby chair, sitting herself down in front of Xia Ning Chang and Yang Kai, staring at them with a pair of sparkling eyes, laughingly saying, “Well, pay no attention to me, carry on carry on!”
This little girl was also at the age where she was beginning to think about love, so naturally she was quite curious; now, finally having found a perfect example to learn from, her desire to study their interactions ran rampant.
Xia Ning Chang glanced around helplessly, panicking as she whispered, “Master seems to be calling me; I’ll leave first.”
Finished speaking, she hurriedly left.
Dong Qing Yan was stunned, her expression filling with disappointment and chagrin, frowning as she murmured, “Wrong… It should not be like this!”
“What are you thinking about now?” Yang Kai looked at her strangely.
“It’s your long awaited reunion, you… you should be more affectionate, whispering sweet words of love to each other, building up a passionate atmosphere and then… then…”
Arriving at this point, Dong Qing Yan also found herself becoming embarrassed, blushing involuntarily, trying to hide her face by bowing her head.
Yang Kai faintly sighed, “This really should be the case, but since you interrupted, such things were no longer possible, understand?”
Dong Qing Yan’s tender body trembled, suddenly feeling deeply guilty and regretful, “Oh cousin, I was wrong, and the next time you two are together I won’t bother you.”
“Hmph, well at least you know, now go on!” Yang Kai nodded seriously.
“En…”
In the other room, Meng Wu Ya and Xiao Fu Sheng were chatting as they shared some tea.
After drinking a few cups, Meng Wu Ya grinned meaningfully and said, “Old Man Xiao, this old master’s purpose in coming this time, you should already know, correct?”
Xiao Fu Sheng chuckled lightly, put down his cup and nodded, “Of course I know, with regards to giving guidance about Alchemy, this old man has no objections, but your other request…”
“Hmm, is it inconvenient?”
“It is not inconvenient; however, it will depend on if she has the qualifications! If she is not qualified, then even if I allow her to visit the Myriad Drug Pond, it will simply be a waste; it costs quite a bit to open it after all.”
Hearing these words, Meng Wu Ya laughed heartily, “How can my apprentice not be qualified? If she cannot qualify, then no one under the Heavens can.”
“You are that confident?” Xiao Fu Sheng wrinkled his brow.
Meng Wu Ya smiled and nodded, “It is not my self-confidence, it is simply my confidence in her; if you don’t believe me, you can test her yourself!”
Xiao Fu Sheng was slightly startled, but more so intrigued, “Good! This old master is also interested now.”
“Chang’er!” Meng Wu Ya called out.
“Here!” Xia Ning Chang quickly responded.
“Old Man Xiao here wants to test your Alchemy skills, give him a demonstration; make sure not to disappoint him.” Meng Wu Ya laughed slyly.
“Yes!”
When Xiao Fu Sheng conducted Xia Ning Chang’s test, he also had Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan sit and listen.
Old Xiao obviously wanted his own disciple to broaden her knowledge of Alchemy from this experience. As for Yang Kai, he was probably only invited as a courtesy.
This test lasted for an entire day, Old Xiao asking a variety of questions about the Alchemic Way, from shallow to deep, step by step, slowly but surely increasing in difficulty.
Xia Ning Chang answered each question seriously and meticulously on the opposite side.
Half a day later, Old Xiao wore a pleasantly surprised expression, and after a full day, his face had become filled with shock, while the way he looked upon Xia Ning Chang had also changed.
It was like he had suddenly found a rare and priceless treasure, his eyes leaking a green light containing a mix of greed and envy.
Meng Wu Ya on the side laughed proudly.
Dong Qing Yan also had an expression full of worship and admiration as she watched Xia Ning Chang, only Yang Kai remaining nonchalant.
A day later, Old Xiao exhaled a long breath.
“So, how about it?” Meng Wu Ya glanced at Xiao Fu Sheng, grinning arrogantly.
Xiao Fu Sheng looked dignified, pondered for a long time in silence before finally summarizing, “Both her basic skills and theoretical knowledge are as solid as Mount Tai, and she has clearly gained many insights that even this old man has not.”
Over the course of evaluating Xia Ning Chang, Old Xiao has also benefited from her various answers. This had not been so much a test as it had been a discussion between two peers, the difference being that Xiao Fu Sheng was asking the questions while Xia Ning Chang only answered.
“That’s only natural!” Meng Wu Ya said flatly.
However, the pride he had in this apprentice of his was very apparent, his grin almost extending from ear to ear.
Xiao Fu Sheng chuckled before glancing at him with great meaning. “Theory is one thing, but sometimes knowing theory is not as good as moving one’s own hands.”
Meng Wu Ya was suddenly like a cat that had its tail trampled on, “Old Man Xiao, if my disciple cannot let you be convinced, this old man will change is surname to yours and call you Father!”
At this point Dong Qing Yan couldn’t help herself, doubling over in laughter, her hand clutching her stomach as her shoulders trembled non-stop.
Xiao Fu Sheng could only let out a sigh and wryly smile, turning his attention to Xia Ning Chang and asking, “So far, what is the highest grade of pill you have successfully refined?”
“Mysterious Grade Low-Rank…” Xia Ning Chang replied softly.
Hearing this, Xiao Fu Sheng’s entire body tensed up, his old face immediately changing colour, quickly staring at the young woman before him, trying to see if there was any sign of her joking with him. But the pair of star-like shimmering eyes didn’t contain the slightest trace of impurity, remaining very bright; where was there any trace of her lying?
Mysterious Grade Low-Rank …
Could it really be that at such a young age she was already a Mysterious Grade Low-Rank Alchemist?
Medicine King’s Valley’s top disciple Qin Ze this year was thirty-five years old, yet he was only a Heaven Grade Top-Rank Alchemist! In terms of age, Qin Ze was almost twice as old.
How could there be such a terrifying genius!
“What is your success rate in refining Mysterious Grade Low-Rank pills?” Xiao Fu Sheng asked.
“I’ve only succeeded once… and at that time it was still quite difficult.”
“Oh…” Xiao Fu Sheng couldn’t help exhaling a long breath, thinking to himself that this was reasonable; it seems that she had only luckily managed to refine a Mysterious Grade Low-Rank pill. Essentially it didn’t really count.
Quickly changing the question, “What about Heaven Grade?”
“Never fail.”
“What!?” Xiao Fu Sheng was again shocked, “You never fail?”
Xia Ning Chang nodded softly in reply.
“That’s impossible!” Xiao Fu Sheng’s brow wrinkled up, “Even if it was this old master personally performing Alchemy, I cannot guarantee a 100% success rate.”
Alchemy was always accompanied by a certain risk of failure. Although Xiao Fu Sheng had reached the very peak of this world’s Alchemic Way, he still couldn’t completely avoid this and could only say that his chance of failure was very small.
But Meng Wu Ya just chuckled, “There is nothing that is impossible, Brother Xiao, if you have doubts, just try it and you’ll understand.”
Xiao Fu Sheng’s face became serious as he hesitated for a moment before standing up and motioning to the crowd, “Come with me!”
As he took the lead, everyone else hurriedly kept up.
Entering a different room inside his residence, Old Xiao brought everyone to the entrance of an underground passage. From the looks of it, one could obviously tell that Hidden Cloud Peak had a large underground space.
This group of people were all cultivators so descending a long distance was not an issue; after passing a few bends, they suddenly came to a huge stone room.
The stone chamber was the size of ten regular sized houses and was filled with a variety of Pill Furnaces surrounded by many medicine shelves, each of these shelves was filled with a variety of herbs, even with just a cursory glance anyone could tell that the amount stored here was massive.
“You have a lot of good things here.” Meng Wu Ya commented as he looked around, picking up a few items and examining them, often appearing reluctant to let go.
Xiao Fu Sheng did not mind, casually saying, “These are all of this old master’s income from a lifetime worth of hard work.”
Everyone who had ever come to ask Xiao Fu Sheng to perform Alchemy would always bring many precious treasures to compensate him, most of which had been stored here over the years.
Now inside this stone chamber, Xiao Fu Sheng turned towards Xia Ning Chang, “Little niece, you may use anything in here, choose some ingredients and refine the best pill you can, let this old master take a look at your skills.”
“Yes!” Xia Ning Chang politely replied before wandering around the stone room.
Dong Qing Yan and Yang Kai also quickly followed after her, the two of them helping Xia Ning Chang carry the herbs she picked out.
Less than half a cup of tea later, the three juniors came back with a selection of herbs, but when Xiao Fu Sheng came over to inspect their choices, he couldn’t help wrinkling his brow, “These materials are all for refining Heaven Grade Mid-Rank pill’s. Is Little niece confident?”
However, Xia Ning Chang simply nodded.
“Very well, then begin, use whatever pill tripod around here that you’d like, this old master has plenty after all.” Xiao Fu Sheng smiled.
“There’s no need…” Xia Ning Chang softly said.
“No need for a pill furnace…” Xiao Fu Sheng had not even finished his sentence before he saw Xia Ning Chang’s True Qi suddenly surge.
Gently picking up one of the materials with her delicate hands, Xia Ning Chang formed her True Qi into fine silk threads and injected it into the herb, its medicinal essence quickly being extracted as a result and then floating mid-air like drops of crystal rain, a fragrant medicinal liquid quickly forming.
Flicking her wrist, the drop of liquid was transferred to her other hand where it gently floated above her jade white palm.
Xia Ning Chang then picked up another herb, followed the same procedure, and soon after another drop of crystal liquid appeared.
Every time she extracted the medicinal essence from an herb, it would lose its spirituality and soon wither.
“Heavens…” Dong Qing Yan eyes filled with indescribable shock, her face showing an expression of pure awe.
This was simply not Alchemy; instead it was some kind of magical world shocking display.
Xiao Fu Sheng was equally surprised, his mouth constantly muttering, “Medicinal liquid can be refined like this, how could it be, how is this possible?”
Less than a quarter of an hour later, all the herbs had their essences condensed into medicinal liquid which had been gathered in Xia Ning Chang’s delicate palm.
Next she gently waved her hands and molded her True Qi into this ball of liquid. A moment later she suddenly gripped her fist and the surrounding World Energy quickly swirled together. After this rapid and unexpected change, once she opened her hand again, a green pill impressively appeared.
The pill was perfectly rounded, not containing the slightest impurity, and on its surface, there was a network of fine lines that gave the whole pill a look of mystery and spirituality.
“Pill Veins!” Xiao Fu Sheng’s eyes nearly popped out as he suddenly screamed.
Yang Kai’s brow also twitched.
He remembered that the first time he saw Xiao Fu Sheng, he had just finished refining a pill. At that time when he was examining that pill, he had been muttering about these ‘Pill Veins’ as well.
“Uncle, please examine it!” Xia Ning Chang gently held this pill and passed it towards Xiao Fu Sheng.
“Careful, careful little Aunty, please be careful not to damage the Pill Veins…” Xiao Fu Sheng stretched out his trembling hands and extremely gently received the pill, as if it was some kind of divine object that he was paying homage to.
“Hmph, good-for-nothing!” Meng Wu Ya teased in a timely manner.
“Fool, you know shit!” Xiao Fu Sheng viciously cursed, lightly turning over the pill as he carefully examined it.
“They real are Pill Veins… real Pill Veins.” At the moment Xiao Fu Sheng no longer had any trace of a Grandmaster’s demeanor; he was totally like an ignorant country bumpkin who had suddenly come to the big city, gazing in wonder at the marvels before him.
“Master, what exactly are Pill Veins?” Dong Qing Yan asked softly.
“Pill Veins…” Xiao Fu Sheng gently sighed, “The appearance of Pill Veins is one of the highest achievements an Alchemist can attain in Alchemy. These faint lines which appear on the pill’s surface are akin to our body’s meridians, in other words, Pill Veins are a pill’s meridians!”
“Whether or not a pill has Pill Veins, its grade does not change, but there is a big difference between a pill with Pill Veins and one with none. Pills with Pill Veins have absorbed the energy of Heaven and Earth and are therefore more than twice as potent as ordinary pills! In addition, the existence of Pill Veins can prevent a pill from losing any of its medicinal effects, which means that no matter how many years it is stored for, its efficacy will not decrease!” Xiao Fu Sheng explained, his voice filled with emotion, “This old master has been studying Alchemy for many years and recently I have focused on the refinement of Pill Veins, but only when refining Common Grade pills will I have occasional success, for Earth Grade, Pill Veins almost never appear, and as for Heaven Grade… I’ve never succeeded.”
Turning around, his eyes shining, Xiao Fu Sheng gazed towards Xia Ning Chang, “Little niece, when you refine Heaven Grade pills, what proportion of them have Pill Veins appear?”
Xia Ning Chang immediately bit her lip and timidly looked at Meng Wu Ya, not sure how she should answer.
She had already given Grandmaster Xiao a huge blow today and she really couldn’t bear to answer this question truthfully.
However, Meng Wu Ya only grinned, “Just tell him.”
“About five to six percent!”
*Hsss…* Xiao Fu Sheng gasped.
Five to Six percent of the Heaven Grade pills had Pill Veins, and each of these would have more than twice the ordinary efficacy… such methods exceed the realm of skills.
It could only be recognised as a heavenly blessing!
Still wearing a look of shock, Xiao Fu Sheng quickly asked, “Pill cloud? Has the legendary Pill Cloud which is even above Pill Veins appeared?”
Xia Ning Chang slowly shook her head.
“Hmm, it should be that your cultivation is not high enough, if you can break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary, you should be able to refining the legendary Pill Cloud.” Xiao Fu Sheng nodded, his hands still trembling, pacing back and forth inside the stone room for a while before suddenly declaring, “Everyone else out, I have something to discuss with Brother Meng!”
The three young people, although startled, quickly bowing before leaving.
A moment after they had left, the sound of Meng Wu Ya’s furious voice rang out from below, “Not in your wildest dreams! Having designs on this old man’s apprentice, how dare you! If I knew you are such an ungrateful wolf then I would never have saved your damn life, if would’ve been better to let those Sixth-Order Monster Beasts rip you into a hundred pieces!”
Xiao Fu Sheng shot back, “It only makes sense; you don’t understand Alchemy, what can you teach her? Such a good piece of jade, her running around by your side is simply a waste of Heavenly gifts; her worshipping this old master is a far better idea.”
Meng Wu Ya sneered again and again, “Even if I can’t teach her, can you?”
“I can teach her all of my life’s experiences! I can let her in the shortest possible time become a Mysterious Grade Top-Rank Alchemist!”
“Mysterious Grade Top-Rank counts for shit, you’re looking down on my background far too much!
Meng Wu Ya and Xiao Fu Sheng quarreled for most of the day, but eventually seemed to have reached some kind of agreement, so the both old guys walked out with big grins on their faces.
Xiao Fu Sheng immediately began preparing to open the Myriad Drug Pond for Xia Ning Chang so she could study the Pill Saint’s Statue and gain insight into the Alchemic Way.
Opening the Myriad Drug Pond was quite expensive because every time it was opened, many pills would need to be used as an offering to the Pill Saint’s Statue so that it would reveal its profound mysteries and allow those who gazed upon it to gain enlightenment.
The number of pills required each time was no less than a hundred, and the more that were offered and they higher their quality, the longer the Pill Saint’s Statue would remain active.
Because of this material cost, even Medicine King’s Valley would not necessarily be able to open it more than a few times a year, and every time it was, it was either for an Elder that needed enlightenment or for an Elite Disciple as a supreme reward for their achievements.
In addition to those who belonged to Medicine King’s Valley, the only way outside Alchemists were able to see the Pill Saint’s portrait was for them to participate in the Alchemist Summit.
These Alchemist Summits were held once every five years, and each time they were, numerous Alchemists from all over the world would rush to attend.
During this summit, the pills these foreign Alchemists refined, regardless of the quantity or quality, would all be put into the Myriad Drug Pond in order to open this forbidden area; then the top 50 Alchemists from the summit would be allowed to patronize the Pill Saint’s Statue.
Over the course of thousands of years, it was not known just how many pills the Myriad Drug Pond had consumed.
Hence how it received the name Myriad Drug Pond!
The Myriad Drug Pond and the Pill Saint’s Statue shared a mysterious link, and although Medicine King’s Valley had many times tried to explore this link, they had never managed to discover anything.
Over time, this place had become the holy ground of this world’s Alchemists! The Pill Saint’s portrait becoming the treasure that all Alchemists dreamed of. Many people worked their whole life just so that they could gain a moment of time sitting before the Pill Saint’s Satue.
After learning that the Myriad Drug Pond would be opened for Xia Ning Chang, Yang Kai’s mind began to race.
Although he could not personally go with Xia Ning Chang to the Myriad Drug Pond, he could still send Old Demon to check out the situation.
Yang Kai’s preparations for this could be said to be foolproof, passing control of the Soul Breaker Awl and Old Demon to Xia Ning Chang and even borrowing Dong Qing Yan’s aura concealing ancient jade.
If not for this piece of jade, with Old Demon’s innate Demonic Qi, an Immortal Ascension Boundary master would certainly discover him.
Two days later, once everything was arranged, Xiao Fu Sheng personally brought Xia Ning Chang to Pill Saint’s Peak and to the Myriad Drug Pond.
Thick skinned Meng Wu Ya also said he wanted to tag along but Xiao Fu Sheng ruthlessly refused.
Even Meng Wu Ya was not allowed to approach; it was clear just how much Medicine King’s Valley valued this forbidden area.
On the day Xia Ning Chang went to the Myriad Drug Pond, Meng Wu Ya, suddenly bored, took the opportunity to come to find Yang Kai and have a man to man talk.
During their conversation, Treasurer Meng kept talking to Yang Kai about how thin Su Yan had become while he was gone, how haggard she had become, how much she had missed him, how annoyed she was that Xie Hong Chen was stalking her, chasing her around like a fool, all the while secretly observing Yang Kai’s reaction.
Patiently listening, Yang Kai eventually chuckled, “Treasurer Meng, let us not speak in riddles, you are worried about me trying to start something with Little Senior Sister, yes?”
Meng Wu Ya suddenly glared, apparently not anticipating that Yang Kai’s skin would be so thick to say things so directly. Grinning fiercely, “Little Yang Kai, this old master has watched you as you’ve grown up, so I know you will not be such an insatiable beast, right? Chang’er is not old, and is very innocent, so she is easily deceived… haa… of course, I’m not talking about you specifically, I just don’t want her to find herself in a situation where she will be hurt. That Su Yan girl is a beloved daughter of Heaven, receiving even a little of her favour is something that all men dream of, yet the only one she thinks of is you! You already had a full bowl so you won’t be so greedy to go looking for another bowl, right?
This was the first time Meng Wu Ya had so openly talked with Yang Kai about Xia Ning Chang’s situation, so naturally he was quite frank.
However, Yang Kai simply laughed, “Treasurer Meng, I just have one question for you.”
“En.”
“Do you wish Little Senior Sister to be married and have children in the future, or do you want her to be alone for the rest of her life?”
“How could I bear for her to be lonely?” Meng Wu Ya narrowed his eyes, “She is my treasured apprentice, I naturally hope that she will life a happy and fulfilling life.”
“In that case, Treasurer Meng, who in this world do you believe to be worthy of Little Senior Sister?”
Meng Wu Ya unhesitantly shook his head, his face filled with pride, “No one is worthy! This old master’s apprentice is akin to a pure jade pearl, someone worthy of her has not yet been born.”
“What about Su Yan? How does she compare with Little Senior Sister?” Yang Kai asked with a smile.
Meng Wu Ya spoke frankly, “Little Su Yan is really extraordinary, but this old master is not boasting, she is still not on my Chang’er’s level!”
“What about… if she received the Heaven’s Cave inheritance, what then?” Yang Kai’s lowered his tone.
Meng Wu Ya expression quickly changed, “She really got it?”
Yang Kai simply nodded.
Meng Wu Ya’s brow wrinkled slightly, recalling the dragon and phoenix vision from that day, “If that’s true, then her future success is limitless, on par with Chang’er!”
“Heh heh!” Yang Kai laughed meaningfully.
Meng Wu Ya looked at him suspiciously, suddenly understanding why he was seemingly talking in circles.
He just admitted that Su Yan and Xia Ning Chang had equal potential, and since Su Yan was willing to be with him, why should Xia Ning Chang not?
“Hmph, after eating from a bowl, how could I simply let it go? As a man, I must be bold with love and hatred, if I am hesitant, that will only hurt Little Senior Sister’s heart.” Yang Kai firmly declared.
Meng Wu Ya’s jaw dropped, unable to refute, angrily standing up and cursing, “You damn little brat, since long ago I knew you were a conniving rogue bastard! Damn it, out of everywhere in this world, this old master had to settle in High Heaven Pavilion and encounter this calamity!”
But regretting now was useless, his own treasured apprentice’s heart already belonged to Yang Kai, and this little rascal also refused to give him face and back down, so there was nothing he could do.
Grinding his teeth, Meng Wu Ya cursed, “Bastard little brat, if you dare make my Chang’er sad, Old Master… Old Master will slaughter your whole Yang Family!”
Finished, he turned around and stormed off.
Yang Kai rubbed his nose but didn’t pay him much mind.
With Meng Wu Ya’s supernatural methods, knowing his real identity was not surprising, he should have heard about it from the Sect Master. However, since Ling Tai Xu had dared tell him, he must be certain it would not leak.
So there was no need for him to concern himself over being exposed.
After a day, Xia Ning Chang and Xiao Fu Sheng returned.
Secretly handing the Soul Breaker Awl and the piece of ancient jade to Yang Kai, this Little Senior Sister of his then quickly entered secluded retreat.
Having spent an entire day studying the Pill Saint’s Statue, she had reaped a great harvest and needed some time to consolidate the knowledge she had gained.
After taking the Soul Breaker Awl back into his body, Yang Kai immediately asked.
“How was it?”
“The defence is extremely tight, in addition to four Immortal Ascension Boundary masters stationed within a three hundred meter radius of the Myriad Drug Pond, there are also more than a dozen guards at the True Element Boundary patrolling the perimeter.” Old Demon hurriedly responded.
“Did you manage to learn anything else?”
“Old Servant could only cautiously investigate the Myriad Drug Pond, but there was not much to be discovered; just, at its bottom, there seems to be a very well hidden and mysterious Spirit Array, one I cannot open.”
“What kind of Spirit Array?”
Old Demon quickly linked his Divine Sense with Yang Kai’s, allowing him to see what he had seen. The image was very vague, but true to Old Demon’s words, there were some faint traces of a Spirit Array; if someone else had examined the pond’s bottom, it was highly unlikely they would have found any clues.
“This Spirit Array…” After staring at it for a while, Yang Kai suddenly realized, this Spirit Array and the one on the fifth page of the wordless Black Book were quite similar.
Clearly there was some kind of connection between the two, and after studying the two for a long time, he concluded that the Spirit Array drawn on the wordless Black Book’s fifth page should be the key to opening this mysterious Spirit Array.
[Looks like I’ll have to go there myself! But with such an impenetrable defense, how can I get in?]
“Young Master, while Old Servant was inside I overheard a few of the guards whispering amongst themselves that once the Alchemist Summit began, the defence around there would become lax. Because Medicine King’s Valley does not have many people, and since the Alchemist Summit is always a bustling time, a lot of the guards from the Pill Saint’s Peak are required to descend the mountain in order to maintain order. When that time comes, only two Immortal Ascension masters will remain; it should be your best chance!” Old Demon suggested.
“Two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters…” Yang Kai frowned.
Two Immortal Ascension cultivators were still two Immortal Ascension cultivators, even if he used the ancient jade to conceal his aura and True Qi fluctuations, there was no way he could also escape their eyes and ears.
And aside from these two masters, there would certainly be others around as well.
He might have a chance if someone could serve as a decoy and lead them away.
Old Demon should be able to do this! As long as he moved fast enough he could return to Hidden Cloud Peak and hide with Little Senior Sister; then, once Yang Kai had finished his business, he would simply need to pick him up again.
The problem was that he certainly couldn’t lead all the guards away, at least one more helper was required; this all caused Yang Kai to furrow his brow.
The Alchemist Summit soon arrived as scheduled; all the world’s most prominent Alchemist gathered in Medicine King’s Valley, ready to show off their skills, win a good ranking, and improve their reputations.
However, on Hidden Cloud Peak, no one seemed to concern themselves with the Summit, only Dong Qing Yan wanted to go join in the excitement, which of course Xiao Fu Sheng did not forbid, often allowing her to walk around and observe.
Xia Ning Chang and Meng Wu Ya were also present on Hidden Cloud Peak, working together with Dong Qing Yan and Old Xiao to study the Alchemic Way.
After these Alchemy discussions, Xia Ning Chang would often accompany Yang Kai, sometimes chatting, sometimes just sitting together silently. Every day was filled with joy. If their future days were to be spent in a similar way, he would be satisfied.
The Alchemist Summit was held for a full ten days, and tomorrow was the finale; after the general assembly, the top fifty Alchemists would be brought to the summit of the Pill Saint’s Peak, and then, using all the pills refined during the conference to open it, these fifty would be allowed to visit the Myriad Drug Pond and gaze upon the Pill Saint’s Statue.
This was a once in five years event; garnering attention from around the entire world!
That night, Yang Kai silently left his room.
With tomorrow being the final day of the Summit, tonight should be Medicine King’s Valley’s busiest moment, so after so many days of careful planning and preparation, it was finally time to act.
Clenching the borrowed ancient jade in his palm, Yang Kai continuously poured his True Qi into it in order to conceal his aura.
In the thin moonlight, Yang Kai moved as swiftly as the wind across the mountains straight toward the Pill Saint’s Peak.
After less than half an hour, Yang Kai had once again come to within three thousand meters of the Pill Saint’s Peak, any further and he would be encroaching upon forbidden ground.
Listening patiently for a long time, Yang Kai silently continued to move closer.
But as soon as he made it to within a thousand meters, he suddenly stopped.
Gazing up towards the Heavens, he slowly waited.
A group of dark clouds slowly floated over, obscuring the already dim moonlight.
At this moment, Yang Kai began moving forward again!
Still undiscovered, Yang Kai breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Fortunately, Dong Qing Yan had this magical ancient jade, otherwise this time he really wouldn’t have known how to get this close.
“Old Demon, you’re up.” Yang Kai said.
“Old Servant understands!” Old Demon responded quickly.
Entering the Soul Breaker Awl, Old Demon flew out and began to cautiously take action.
Within ten breaths of time an angry voice from the top of Pill Saint’s Peak thundered, “Who goes there?!”
Following this cry, from all around a group of silhouettes approached, a dozen people rapidly closing in.
A burst of strange ‘Jie Jie’ laughter suddenly rang out, an eerie howl that caused all who heard it to feel cold chills run up their spines.
Before now, the two Immortal Ascension masters guarding the Myriad Drug Pond had not joined the chase, but after hearing this voice both of their expressions immediately changed, and one of them shouted, “Evil Demon!”
Both of them stood up and dashed towards the direction from which Old Demon had escaped. Mid-air, the two men’s eyes met for a moment before one of them hurriedly returned to the Myriad Drug Pond’s side, leaving the other to continue the pursuit.
During this brief sequence of events, Yang Kai took the opportunity to move another two hundred meters closer.
Before even breathing a sigh of relief, Yang Kai quickly took out something he had hidden in his sleeve.
It was a small gray rabbit. Although Medicine King’s Valley did not have any Monstrous Beasts, it still had a large number of small animals such as this rabbit, so Yang Kai had easily been able to capture one.
After applying his Beast Slave Seal, this little rabbit obediently followed his orders.
Skillfully, Yang Kai tossed this rabbit to a spot three hundred meters away where it softly landed. Unhurriedly standing up, the rabbit lightly hopped a couple dozen meters just as Yang Kai commanded before it began dashing forward as fast as it could.
This sudden burst of movement kicked up quite a bit of unnatural noise.
The remaining Immortal Ascension master’s eyes flashed a cold light, and throwing a palm strike towards the direction where this disturbance had originated, he immediately soared out like a bird of prey to investigate.
[Now.]
Yang Kai took a deep breath and activated his Movement Skill. Like a flash of lightning, he came directly to Myriad Drug Pond’s side and before even checking to see what this forbidden area looked like, he dove in, careful not to make the slightest splash.
The Immortal Ascension Boundary master who had stayed behind quickly caught up and captured the little grey rabbit. Looking down at this struggling little thing, he secretly shook his head, thinking to himself that he was a bit too nervous.
He casually released the rabbit a moment later.
* Shua Shua Shua*, the sound of swishing clothes drifted over as the dozen people who had gone out to chase Old Demon returned.
“How was it?”
“We lost him, that demon ran too fast and… it gave me a weird feeling, it was like it had no vitality!” The Immortal Ascension master who had chased Old Demon replied before frowning, “Why are you out here?”
“I heard some movement and came out to check; I didn’t expect to simply find a rabbit.”
The two masters suddenly exchanged a glance, and their expressions rapidly changed, “A diversion!”
Rushing back, the two began to carefully inspect the area around the Myriad Drug Pond.
The Myriad Drug Pond was okay. The Pill Saint’s portait was also all right. Everything was calm.
The group of people looked at each other, and none of them had a clue what that demon had been trying to do, but fortunately nothing had happened. This place was the very foundation upon which Medicine King’s Valley was built. If something had really happened, it wouldn’t only be a loss to Medicine King’s Valley. It would also be a loss to all of this world’s Alchemists. Such a sin was not something these two Immortal Ascension masters could atone for even with their lives.
…
The Myriad Drug Pond was not deep, probably only a couple dozen meters or so.
Yang Kai dove rapidly. The wordless Black Book was gripped in his hand as it had been since before he began sneaking in. Directly flipping to the fifth page as he reached the pond’s bottom, a bright light burst forth from the page and completely enveloped his body.
From the Myriad Drug Pond’s bottom, the hidden Spirit Array’s lines also began to glow and allowed Yang Kai to pass directly through them and reach an area even further below.
A moment later, Yang Kai slowly began to recover his vision, and he immediately noticed that there was no water around. Instead he found himself in a small closed space. Although this space was isolated, it was not barren, and an extremely rich energy circulated about while the air was full of fragrant aroma.
Suddenly, the light wrapping him flowed into his body, and with it, something was deposited into Yang Kai’s mind.
Ignoring this sensation for the time being, Yang Kai first examined his surrounding environment.
This should be below the bottom of the Myriad Drug Pond, and thanks to the mysterious Spirit Array, no one should have come here before; even if their strength was great, it would be impossible for them to discover this place.
No wonder Medicine King’s Valley, after thousands of years, still couldn’t unravel the mysteries of the Myriad Drug Pond. It turns out the root of the mystery had been hidden here.
Curious, Yang Kai swept his eyes around every corner of this isolated room.
Not far from him, he found a deep well-like thing. The top of the well was probably only about the size of a washbasin. Walking up to it, he saw that the well seemed to store some kind of milky-white liquid.
The well itself was surrounded by some mysterious patterns and text, probably another esoteric Spirit Array.
This Spirit Array formed a visible cylinder of energy overtop the well that seemed to constantly be transferring power from above to below.
The source of this energy was the bottom of the Myriad Drug Pond, while its destination was the well.
Sniffing the air around the well, a rich aroma wafted to his nose, the fragrance clearly coming from the liquids contained within.
Carefully dipping a finger into the well, Yang Kai brought a drop of the clear liquid to his mouth. A sweet taste immediately spread across his tongue, and the liquid instantly transformed into a warm energy, which proceeded to soak into his body from his flesh to his bones.
Yang Kai’s body twitched, and he felt the True Element Boundary Second Stage’s bottleneck instantly shatter. In one fell swoop, he broke through to the True Element Boundary Third Stage.
As an intangible aura ripple spread out, Yang Kai’s expression tightened, as he worried that this sudden disturbance would alert the Myriad Drug Pond’s guardians above.
However, to his surprise, this closed space completely isolated the outburst from his breakthrough and did not allow it to spread to the outside.
Secretly breathing a sigh of relief, his heartbeat slowly calmed.
“Amazing!” Yang Kai was pleasantly surprised. What was this mysterious liquid inside the well? Its effects were remarkable!
Although it had been around half a month ago that Yang Kai faintly felt he had reached the peak of the True Element Boundary Second Stage, he had been cultivating for so long without progress, but in just a moment he had experienced a breakthrough thanks to this strange liquid.
Yang Kai suddenly remembered the burst of information he had just received and figured that it would hold the answers to his questions.
Searching his mind, he carefully began to review this new knowledge.
A moment later, Yang Kai’s eyes shot open in astonishment.
He really did find the answers he was looking for.
The milky white liquid inside the well was a kind of medicinal elixir called Myriad Drug Liquid!
Every year, hundreds of thousands of pills were sacrificed to the Myriad Drug Pond, but the energy contained within these pills did not simply vanish but were instead collected by the Spirit Array hidden at its bottom and then drawn into this well.
Once inside the well, the second Spirit Array would transform this energy Myriad Drug Liquid.
This was not something that could be done overnight, but instead required years of time and a constant supply of pills in order to complete.
Medicine King’s Valley’s heritage stretched back five or six thousand years. Every year hundreds, thousands, or even more pills were thrown into the Myriad Drug Pond, so after so many years of accumulation, the total number of pills the Myriad Drug Pond had consumed had reached at least a few million.
A few million! This was a figure that could cause the entire world to tremble.
Even if the grade of the pills were low, the sheer quantity of them would result in a massive amount of energy being gathered here, enough to shake the Heavens and crack the Earth. Not to mention, often, in order to study the mysteries of the Pill Saint’s Portait for longer, Medicine King’s Valley would not hesitate to offer many Earth Grade and even Heaven Grade pills.
On top of that, every year when it was time to worship their ancestors, even Mysterious Grade pills would be sacrificed.
And now, all of these energies had been brought together in this well and converted into Myriad Drug Liquid.
It was easy to imagine just how rare and precious this Myriad Drug Liquid was.
This elixir was formed from the energy of millions of pills being slowly refined over thousands of years!
As for its effects, there were many. Not only could it immediately boost one’s cultivation, if a cultivator were to regularly refine it over a long period of time they could essentially be reborn, completely cleansing and quenching their body. Even if their aptitude was originally mediocre, as long as they continuously took this medicine, they would inevitable one day become a genius.
It could also play a role in Alchemy. When refining any pill, if an Alchemist added a single drop of Myriad Drug Liquid, it would improve the quality of pill by half a grade.
For a Mysterious Grade Top-Rank pill, a half-grade enhancement meant that the end result would be approaching the threshold of the Spirit Grade. This was an unattainable goal that Xiao Fu Sheng had pursued his entire life.
In addition, be it healing, increasing longevity, etc… all kinds of benefits were associated with the Myriad Drug Liquid.
Although this elixir was formed from a variety of pill, its effects far exceeded the effects of those pills. Through a long constant refinement it had undergone a quantitative and qualitative change.
Moreover, the Spirit Array engraved around the well was constantly absorbing World Energy from the surroundings continuously channeled it into the well over the course of thousands of years. The kind of changes this had caused to the Myriad Drug Liquid contained within, no one could said clearly.
This well was simply the most valuable treasure under the Heavens! Anyone who got their hands on it would no doubt accomplish many heroic deeds and could even build an unrivalled force that could disdain the entire world.
Medicine King’s Valley had been sitting on this Heavenly treasure, but had only used it as a medium to activate the Pill Saint’s Portait, not even taking advantage of one-tenth if its full potential.
However, it was precisely because of the existence of the Pill Saint’s Portait that Medicine King’s Valley and the world’s Alchemists continued to offer pills to the Myriad Drug Pond for thousands of year, which ultimately allowed this Myriad Drug Liquid to form.
Without the Pill Saint’s portrait, there would never have been any liquid in this well.
Yang Kai took a deep breath, trying to calm the excitement in his heart.
He didn’t know what kind of face those of Medicine King’s Valley would make if they learned that their Sect’s thousands of years of effort had suddenly become someone else’s stepping stone.
Yang Kai and Medicine King’s Valley had no grievances between them. This time he had really only been following the wordless Black Book’s guidance. He hadn’t intended on robbing them of this treasure.
Pushing down the shame he felt, Yang Kai, still holding the wordless Black Book, quickly sat down cross-legged.
This well was quite large and had a great amount of Myriad Drug Liquid, but without a suitable container, there was no way for him to take it away. Even the Universe Bag Yang Kai had received from Ling Tai Xu was unable to carry it.
But Yang Kai was not rushed.
Calming himself, he turned to the wordless Black Book’s sixth page.
As soon as he had broken through to the True Element Boundary, Yang Kai had felt that the sixth page of the Black Book could be activated, but although he knew that the mysteries of the sixth page had been unlocked, he did not take action immediately.
He hesitated because he had not fully explored the mysteries of the fifth page’s Spirit Array.
The first five pages of the Black Book had nothing inside them except for the incense burner.
Removing the burner, Yang Kai proceeded to pour True Qi into the sixth page.
As he did, a pattern of dark lines suddenly emerged. At a glance he could see that these lines were some kind of Spirit Array, but unlike the one drawn on the fifth page, no matter how much True Qi he channelled into this array, it just continued absorbing it, seemingly without limits.
The Spirit Array’s lines constantly flickered.
A moment later, his True Qi was exhausted.
When this happened, Yang Kai immediately burst a drop of Yang Liquid within his dantian and once again filled his empty meridians, continuing to pour True Qi into the Spirit Array.
After consuming a full ten drops of valuable Yang Liquid, the sixth page finally seemed to be saturated and the Spirit Array underwent a change. The first six pages suddenly combined together to merge into one.
Probing it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai laughed with satisfaction.
It had been two or three years since he had acquired this Black Book, and although he had long since known that it was made of a giant piece of soulstone, it was not until now that it could fulfil its most fundamental role.
Soulstone was a Precious Treasure that one could forge storage artifacts from.
Such artifacts were actually things only spoken of in legend, so from the moment Yang Kai had first discovered that this wordless Black Book was forged from soulstone, he had been looking forward to the day he could use it as a storage.
This was especially true since a year ago when he had gone out for life experience. The Universe Bag that Ling Tai Xu had given him had shown him just how convenient and useful a storage artifact could be.
If one had a decent storage artifact, they could save themselves a lot of trouble.
And now, that desire had finally been reached.
What the Black Book’s sixth page had given him was the ability to open the wordless Black Books storage ability. The first six pages merging together had created an independent storage space.
Compared to the relatively small storage capacity of the Universe Bag, the Black Book’s internal space was very large, big enough to fit several houses inside. Besides an inability to load living things, there were basically no other limits or restrictions on what could be put into this space.
Moreover, in the future, the remaining pages of the Black Book would become available to him, and once those pages merged with the first six, the amount of storage space would increase.
Allowing his Divine Sense to wander around the huge space, Yang Kai felt truly amazed.
With such a large independent space at his disposal, essentially he would never again have to worry about being able to store things again.
After a moment, Yang Kai recalled his Divine Sense and carefully held the Black Book in one hand while manipulating his True Qi with the other, as he very carefully began removing the Myriad Drug Liquid from the well and loading it into the Black Book.
Every single drop of Myriad Drug Liquid was extremely precious, so Yang Kai was particularly meticulous and cautious, not wanting to spill even the slightest amount.
Fortunately, he had painstakingly cultivated Xiao Fu Sheng’s Yuan Qi manipulation techniques, so he was much more deft at controlling his True Qi than before, which allowed him to complete this task with relative ease.
At the beginning, Yang Kai was quite cautious, but as time passed, his actions gradually became faster. By the end, his free hand was basically tossing the Myriad Drug Liquid into the wordless Black Book’s storage space without him even bothering to watch.
This process lasted a full six or seven hours.
As time passed, Yang Kai’s back began to ache from kneeling over, while the actions of his hands had become mechanical.
When it was all over, he had acquired more than a thousand kilograms of Myriad Drug Liquid.
Looking into the well, part way down, at some point a layer of Myriad Drug Liquid that was richer in texture appeared. It was still a milky white colour, but instead of a flowing liquid it was closer to a semi-solidified state.
Myriad Drug Milk!
Compared to Myriad Drug Liquid it was a higher grade of treasure.
After all, this well had existed for thousands of years, and during that time Medicine King’s Valley had constantly been offering a huge amount of pills to the Myriad Drug Pond. The energy of those pills had all been gathered into the well, and the deeper one went the more ancient and refined the product would become. Naturally that meant that the treasure at the bottom of the well would have more potent effects.
Looking at this layer of Myriad Drug Milk, Yang Kai took a deep breath, grit his teeth, and continued collecting.
Another three or four hours later, the Myriad Drug Milk had been fully harvested, and although it was not as much as the thousand kilograms of Myriad Drug Liquid, there was still at least two or three hundred kilograms.
The Myriad Drug Milk’s effects were twice as strong as its liquid form.
In other words, with such an auxiliary treasure in hand, Xiao Fu Sheng would immediately be able to refine Spirit Grade pills because a single drop of this cream would allow one to improve the level of any pill by a full grade.
Once all the Myriad Drug Milk was collected however, there was still a layer of something at the bottom of the well.
This layer was completely solidified and was clearly the most valuable treasure in the well.
Myriad Drug Cream! Its efficacy was again twice that of its milk form.
Enduring his built up fatigue, Yang Kai once again carefully began collecting this treasure.
After a long time, Yang Kai wiped the sweat off his forehead, and sat cross-legged on the ground while breathing rhythmically in order to restore his strength.
The amount of Myriad Drug Cream he acquired was not much, at least compared the massive quantity of Myriad Drug Liquid and Myriad Drug Milk, only a few dozen kilograms. But these few dozen kilograms of cream were the crystallization of the most potent energies from thousands of year’s worth of sacrificed pills.
Now, the well had been completely emptied, and the thousands of years of accumulation all belonged to Yang Kai.
Frowning as he meditated, Yang Kai couldn’t help but ponder over this several thousand years old cycle.
Gaining enlightenment about the Alchemic Way from the Pill Saint’s portrait was the bait for this cycle, and if an Alchemist wanted to do so they needed to offer a large amount of pills to the Myriad Drug Pond.
Once these pills were placed into the pond, their energy and essence would eventually be gathered here.
Then, only after thousands of years would this large quantity of Myriad Drug Liquid be formed.
Was it the wordless Black Book’s creator that set all of this up? Yang Kai didn’t know.
What he did know was that this entire setup was very clever, using those Alchemists’ pilgrimages here to gain insight to acquire the required materials to fuel this cycle.
As long as the Pill Saint’s Portrait remained, as long as the Myriad Drug Pond was there, and as long as Medicine King’s Valley endured, thousands of years later, it was more than likely that this well would once again be filled with Myriad Drug Liquid.
But in the river of time, all things were impermanent; Medicine King’s Valley maintaining its position for thousands of years was already a miracle, as for if it could continue to do so for many more thousands of years, who could say for sure?
As he was in mediation, the isolated space he was in suddenly had some unusual movements.
His expression slightly changed. Yang Kai hurriedly opened his eyes, surprised to find the space round him filled with a variety of flashing text and diagrams.
These words were old, obscure, and completely unintelligible.
The diagrams were also strange, but at a glance Yang Kai could see that many of them were in fact Spirit Arrays.
These words and patterns filled the chamber with flashing lights, appearing somewhat like tiny glowing fish quickly swimming through a clear lake.
Yang Kai wrinkled his brow in confusion and looked around carefully wondering what exactly was going on.
But before he had a chance to figure anything out, the numerous words and diagrams suddenly flashed brilliantly and madly rushed towards Yang Kai.
In a flash, all of these words and diagrams began silently flooding into his mind. His entire head was seemingly wrapped up in a glowing halo. As these lights continued drilling into him, Yang Kai feel like his brain was constantly on the verge of exploding. The blue veins on his forehead were clearly visible, like a mass of squirming earthworms, grotesque and disturbing to anyone who could see them.
This anomaly lasted for quite a while, until finally the last light shot into Yang Kai’s head, and then the whole chamber suddenly became dark again.
Yang Kai felt a throbbing pain resound inside his mind as he tried to catch his breath and recover his composure.
Involuntarily breathing a sigh of relief, Yang Kai knew that the Soul Warming Lotus had once again saved him, similar to his experience in the Nether Mountain isolate world’s white mist region, automatically repairing his Soul when it became damaged.
Faintly, Yang Kai felt that some new knowledge had been added to his mind, but this time was much different from the times he had gained something from the wordless Black Book, the two experiences couldn’t even be compared.
Every page of the wordless Black Book contained very specific information and was easily understood and conveyed; additionally, the amount of information was very small, so even if one hadn’t cultivated their Soul yet, it was still easy to understand.
But this time the amount of information he received was enormous, to the point that Yang Kai couldn’t even comprehend just how great it was.
Calming himself, Yang Kai carefully tried to examine some of this new knowledge.
And after a while, some inexplicable information jumped out.
The True Alchemic Way!
After slowly reviewing for a while, Yang Kai was surprised to find that this information was all somehow related to Alchemy. No Secret Arts, no Martial Skills, but all about how to practice Alchemy and refining good pills.
This True Alchemic Method wasn’t just a guide on how to perform Alchemy, however; it also contained many formulas for different pills, as well as the experiences of countless Alchemy Grandmasters. Many of their unique methods and insights into Alchemy were also documented. It was definitely a Heaven class treasure.
Although Yang Kai was only concerned about reaching the peak of Martial Arts and did not want to be distracted by pursuing Alchemy, his Little Senior Sister would definitely need this knowledge. If she could acquire all the information in this True Alchemic Method, it would absolutely be a huge boon to her abilities, and coupled with her special physique and skills, it would greatly assist her in refining higher grade and better quality pills.
Considering all this, Yang Kai grinned, and did not rush to leave but instead began carefully studying this information.
But less than ten breaths of time later, Yang Kai suddenly felt a burst of fatigue wash over his whole being and the just-settled throbbing pain once again assaulted his mind.
Gasping for breath, it wasn’t until the Soul Warming Lotus activated and slowly began repairing the damage to his Soul that the pain finally began to subside, but the feeling of exhaustion still continued to linger.
Yang Kai couldn’t help trembling slightly. His Spiritual Energy had actually been completely consumed within the span of a few breaths.
The Soul’s strength was also limited, similar to the Yuan Qi inside a cultivator’s body. Once their Yuan Qi was exhausted, a cultivator could no longer fight, while likewise, once one’s Spiritual Energy was exhausted, one’s Divine Sense could no longer be used.
This was why, even though Immortal Ascension Boundary masters could cultivate their Souls, under normal circumstances, they would not freely use their Divine Sense.
Yuan Qi was easy to restore, Spiritual Energy, on the other hand, was another story. Precious Treasures and pills related to restoring Spiritual Energy were generally many times rarer, and thus much more expensive.
Yang Kai’s cultivation was currently at the True Element Boundary Third Stage, yet he had already begun cultivating his Soul, and already had Spiritual Energy comparable to an ordinary Immortal Ascension Boundary Fourth or Fifth stage master, but clearly that was nowhere near enough to explore the mysteries of this True Alchemic Method that had been imprinted into his mind.
Frowning, Yang Kai meditated for another four or five hours before he felt his Spiritual Energy finally recover.
It was only with the Soul Warming Lotus’ constant assistance that recovering in such a short period of time was possible. For a general Immortal Ascension cultivator, if their Spiritual Energy were to be completely exhausted, it would be at least ten days to as long as half a month to do this.
[I have to find some good Spiritual Energy recovering pills after this,] Yang Kai silently thought to himself.
Not satisfied with simply giving up, Yang Kai once again submerged his consciousness into his mind. This time he lasted a few additional breaths before his Spiritual Energy was cleanly consumed again.
This time, however, Yang Kai didn’t simply wait to recover naturally but instead consumed some of the Myriad Drug Liquid, and sure enough, his Spiritual Energy really did begin to quickly recover.
In less than half an hour, he had once again been completely restored and was full of energy.
Repeating this process a dozen times, Yang Kai finally began to glimpse a little bit of useful information.
It was a Spirit Array! Specifically it was an array used to assist Alchemists which could be engraved inside one’s Alchemy Furnace in order to enhance the quality and possibility of success in refining a pill, but the effect was neither very good, nor very stable.
Expending a huge amount of Spiritual Energy and consuming more than a dozen drops of Myriad Drug Liquid to get such a thing made Yang Kai wrinkle his brow involuntarily.
The reward not being proportional to the expense gave him a feeling of receiving more harm than good.
This True Alchemic Way was filled with profound and esoteric knowledge, but with his currently weak Spiritual Energy, it was obviously impossible for him to comprehend the whole picture.
Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a little pity as he slowly put aside this True Alchemic Way, planning to further cultivate his Soul before trying again.
Feeling like his Spiritual Energy had grown slightly through these efforts brought him a bit of happiness though.
The only question now was… why did this True Alchemic Way appear here? And why would it suddenly decide to flood his mind?
If the Black Book’s creator wanted him to master the True Alchemic Way, he or she could have simply sealed it into one of the wordless Black Book’s pages and allowed it to be unlocked once his cultivation had reached a sufficient height.
According to his current cultivation, normally it would have been impossible to accept such a massive amount of information. If it weren’t for the Soul Warming Lotus’s help in repairing the damage, his Soul would certainly have been destroyed.
Although he was still uncertain about how all this had happened, Yang Kai did finally understand the mystery of the Pill Saint’s Statue.
Rumor was that the Pill Saint had left behind his Alchemy inheritance here. It was such a famous story that even Meng Wu Ya knew about the Pill Saint’s Statue, and apparently such rumors were not groundless.
The profound mysteries hidden within the Pill Saint’s Statue were actually this True Alchemic Way.
It was just that when Alchemists studied the Statue to gain enlightenment, they would only receive a very small portion of this knowledge, whereas Yang Kai had the complete archive directly implanted into his brain this time.
Uncertain about whether or not the Pill Saint’s Statue would continue allowing Alchemists to gain enlightenment after this, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
However, everything had already happened, and all the mysteries here had been solved, leaving behind only a dry well.
All he could do now was leave.
After taking some time to adjust his condition to its peak, Yang Kai began looking for the way out.
At first, he thought that this isolated space would have some kind of exit gate, but after searching for a long time, Yang Kai found nothing of the sort.
This discovery suddenly put him into an awkward position. Without an established exit, how was he supposed to leave? Did he have to force his way out? But just outside of this space were at least two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters and a large number of True Element Boundary guards.
The moment he jumped out of Myriad Drug Pond, he would immediately be captured.
Yang Kai had to believe there was some hidden exit somewhere.
But after carefully and meticulously searching around the hidden chamber again he still came up empty.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled, and he felt like something about this whole situation seemed a bit off. The Black Book’s instructions had led him to this place in order to obtain the Myriad Drug Liquid, so there was no reason it would do so just to let him be trapped here.
But why couldn’t he find the way out? Was there something he had missed?
Yang Kai continued his blind search and had soon gone over every square millimeter of the room a dozen times.
Half a day flew by.
His patience was reaching its limit.
Yang Kai was now certain there was no gateway out of this place, so if he wanted to leave, the only way to do so was through the Myriad Drug Pond.
But, wasn’t this the same as throwing himself into a net? The Myriad Drug Pond was Medicine King’s Valley’s most forbidden area. Even if he was now considered half a Hidden Cloud Peak disciple, if he appeared from the bottom of the Myriad Drug Pond he would likely not have a good end.
Gritting his teeth, Yang Kai decided to break through the top. Although there were many guards outside, if he moved fast enough, it wasn’t a certainty he would be caught.
Making up his mind, Yang Kai faced the isolate space’s ceiling, exhaled a breath, and let out a strong punch.
This punch was just a test.
The Myriad Drug Pond had been the centre of Medicine King’s Valley for many years; there must have been many experts who had similarly performed such an attack, wanting to see if below the surface there was some hidden mystery.
However, none of them had broken through the bottom because of the Spirit Array engraved there.
Yang Kai didn’t know if his punch could break through!
But fortune seemed to be on his side, with this single punch, a muffled bang rang out, and the stone ceiling above his head suddenly cracked and eventually burst open with a loud crashing sound, and the water from the Myriad Drug Pond immediately poured in.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled further as doubt flashed across his eyes, but with no time to hesitate, he quickly began swimming upwards and rapidly circulated his True Qi, anticipating the worst.
He was resigned to being besieged and was preparing his best to quickly counterattack.
But unexpectedly, after bursting out of the pond and floating mid-air, he didn’t suffer any attacks. Quickly glancing around, Yang Kai’s pupils involuntarily shrank.
Corpses surrounded the Myriad Drug Pond and blood flowed like rivers.
The originally hundred meters tall Pill Saint’s Statue had now been shattered, broken into pieces that were strewn across the mountain top.
The surrounding air was filled with a thick bloody smell and the sounds of fighting and killing echoed all around.
Yang Kai’s expression suddenly became solemn as he surveyed his surroundings and quickly landed nearby.
The area around him was filled with traces of battle, and as he looked further afield, Yang Kai found that smoke was rising from all of Medicine King’s Valley’s twelve peaks and the city in the valley below was in complete chaos.
Floating in the sky, there were many Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators locked in desperate struggles with all kinds of ferocious Martial Skills and strange artifacts flying back and forth.
Someone was attacking Medicine King’s Valley!
What force was so bold?
Not to mention that the Alchemist Summit was currently being held, so it was a particularly sensitive time.
For thousands of years, Medicine King’s Valley had never fought with any force, whether you were good or evil, whether you were strong or weak, Medicine King’s Valley had always upheld a strict principle of neutrality from beginning to end.
Even many devil path cultivators would visit Medicine King’s Valley to make Alchemy requests.
It was because of this policy of neutrality that this place had endured for all these years.
But now, someone had launched an attack on Medicine King’s Valley and not only slaughtered many lives but also destroyed the Pill Saint’s Statue!
This was a Heaven shaking change!
Medicine King’s Valley was inextricably linked with all of this world’s forces. In the Valley town every great force had opened a branch where one of their masters would sit all year round. If someone dared to attack Medicine King’s Valley, they would be making an enemy of the entire world, so no matter how strong their own forces were their destruction would not be far behind.
Buy at the moment, the battle raging across Medicine King’s Valley was obviously quite even. Medicine King’s Valley even seemed to be at a disadvantage.
On top of that… the Pill Saint’s Statue had actually been destroyed. This was a huge loss for the entire world.
Yang Kai faintly felt that the destruction of the Pill Saint’s Statue and the True Alchemic Way’s sudden influx into his mind were linked. After all, the True Alchemic Way’s original vessel was likely the Pill Saint’s Statue itself.
Standing there stunned for a moment, Yang Kai eventually managed to compose himself and activate his movement skill, dashing towards Hidden Cloud Peak.
Dong Qing Yan and Xia Ning Chang were still there. Old Xiao and his two defenceless Aunties were also there, and although Meng Wu Ya sat upon Hidden Cloud Peak as well, who knew what the situation was right now?
Moving as fast as he could, Yang Kai soon approached Hidden Cloud Peak. The scenery around him was only a blur as he rushed forward. Spreading out his Divine Sense in order to gather information, the situation around him immediately became clear.
Evil Qi and Demonic Qi were spread around Medicine King’s Valley, and those who were fighting with Medicine King’s Valley’s disciple were also releasing Demonic Qi.
The attackers were devil’s path cultivators! It was just unknown which Evil Sect they belonged to.
In addition to these devil’s path cultivators and Medicine King’s Valley disciples, there were also many cultivators from the world’s various forces also engaged in battle. All of them assisted Medicine King’s Valley’s forces, but there were not many experts present, so coupled with their lack of coordination, they were losing ground in many places, some of them even becoming corpses.
A few kilometers away, there was even a green poison fog that enveloped a several thousand meter radius. Inside that poisonous shroud, all the trees and plants had withered and died, and the ground was littered with the rotting corpses of many once powerful cultivators. Their remains were now little more than bleached bones.
In the sky above, numerous Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were slaughtered and soon fell back to the ground. Most of these high level cultivators were masters that the great forces had stationed here, but it was clear that the Demonic Qi covered Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators had the upper hand.
Yang Kai frowned deeply. Though he didn’t know why Medicine King’s Valley had experienced such a tragedy, his footsteps never once stopped.
Halfway to his destination, a brawny blood stained man sudden jumped out in front of him, his hands holding a short sword carved out of bone, a chunk of bloody flesh still stuck on the blade.
Revealing a malicious grin, the man’s pair of wolf-like eyes stared straight towards Yang Kai as he brought the hunk of flesh on his sword to his mouth and sunk his teeth into it, chewing on this bloody meat like he was savouring the world’s more delicious delicacy, with a look of ecstasy emerging on his face.
Yang Kai quickly swept his eyes over this man and soon discovered a body underneath his foot. It wasn’t a Medicine King’s Valley’s disciple, instead it probably was someone from one of the great forces. From the looks of it, he had died recently, but the most disturbing sight was that a big piece of flesh was missing from his face.
“Another delicious meal!” The bloodstained man shouted as he flashed a ferocious smile, and his True Qi violently burst forth, exuding a rich demonic breath.
[True Element Boundary Fifth Stage!]
Yang Kai didn’t even pause, and a cold light flashed across his eyes, as he concentrated his Divine Sense and shot it towards the man’s forehead.
The brawny man was suddenly dazed, and his eyes became unfocused.
Although Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was no less powerful than an average Immortal Ascension Boundary Fourth of Fifth Stage master, he could only use it in such a rough manner, unable to display its full potential.
However, that was more than enough.
In the blink of an eye, the brawny man had recovered, but before he had time to launch an attack, Yang Kai released a punch straight towards the centre of his chest.
With a loud bang, the brawny hundred kilogram man’s body shot out like a arrow, his chest visibly caved in.
In mid-air, the brawny body burst into a mass of blood fog!
He did not even had time to mobilize his True Qi in order to defend himself.
Not sparing a second glance, Yang Kai continued forward like a meteor.
A moment later, Yang Kai reached the base of Hidden Cloud Peak.
Compared to the other surrounding peaks, Hidden Cloud Peak had very few casualties. After all, this place had always been quiet, and basically, no one ever visited.
But now, the fighting here was incredibly intense.
Before even reaching the summit, Yang Kai looked up into the sky and saw Meng Wu Ya single-handedly fighting against a large group of devil path Immortal Ascension cultivators.
Treasurer Meng was incredibly mysterious, and all of his methods were Heaven defying. His realm was currently only at the Peak of the Immortal Ascension Boundary, yet he was still fighting evenly against six other masters. Two of them had reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage, while the remaining four were also by no means weak, each of them had cultivation levels at least above the Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage. These masters were more than just one step above the Blood Battle Gang’s masters he had once fought against.
Seven Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were having an all out contest above Hidden Cloud Peak.
Mid-battle, one of the devil path masters couldn’t help but complain, “Where did this old bastard suddenly appear from, he’s so damn strong!”
If it was an ordinary Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary master, they would have long fallen under the combined attacks of all six of them, but Meng Wu Ya wasn’t even at a disadvantage. Each of the Martial Skills he launched contained power that shocked all of them to their cores.
When orders had been given to capture Xiao Fu Sheng, originally only two Immortal Ascension masters had come, and both of them were in high spirits as they felt certain of their victory.
But just before reaching Hidden Cloud Peak’s summit, Meng Wu Ya had suddenly appeared and mercilessly slaughtered them.
With two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters suddenly dying, six nearby devil’s path masters learned that a strong master was guarding Hidden Cloud Peak, and all of them rushed over to attack. However, even with all of them attacking together, they couldn’t gain an upper hand. Although Meng Wu Ya only had a cultivation of peak Immortal Ascension, he still managed to single handedly hold all of them back.
All of Treasurer Meng’s Martial Skills contained huge lethality, and many of them were completely unfamiliar. Seeing these moves, the six attackers slowly became more and more frightened, after realizing they had kicked an iron plate.
What corner did this old guy suddenly jump out from? The six people were thoroughly confused. Wasn’t the only Immortal Ascension master on Hidden Cloud Peak, Xiao Fu Sheng?
Meanwhile, on the top of the peak, Xiao Fu Sheng calmly stood as he leisurely observed this battle.
Although he was also an Immortal Ascension master, his life had been dedicated to Alchem, so he was not proficient in fighting. Even if he utilized the Martial Skills he had cultivated, they wouldn’t be of any help.
The two dignified beauties stood behind him, and behind them were Dong Qing Yan and Xia Ning Chang. The four women each held some faint tension unlike Old Xiao’s indifferent calm.
“Young Master is back!” Old Demon suddenly called out, pleasantly surprised, and sure enough, the next moment, Yang Kai appeared on top of Hidden Cloud Peak.
Immediately after, the Soul Breaker Awl flew out towards Yang Kai ,who naturally reached out and grabbed it. The black gas quickly disappeared back into his body.
Xiao Fu Sheng only spared this whole process a glance, not even bothering to comment while Dong Qing Yan waved to Yang Kai, motioning him over.
“What happened here?” Yang Kai swiftly joined the crowd and inquisitively whispered.
“A day ago, the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land suddenly attacked Medicine King’s Valley. From how swiftly and menacingly they acted, they had clearly been plotting this for quite some time. After injuring or killing the masters from the various great forces standing guard in the Valley Town, they proceeded straight towards Medicine King’s Valley’s twelve peaks, capturing numerous disciples and various Alchemists who had come here to participate in the Alchemist Summit…”
Xia Ning Chang softly spoke about the current situation and all the relevant information she could remember.
Given this information, Yang Kai was also able to figure out a lot of things.
Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land, it was this world’s largest devil’s path practitioner gathering place, a haven for all those who cultivated demonic arts. It was located in the southwest corner of the Great Han Dynasty.
In fact, the entire southwest region could be considered part of the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land.
Within the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land were many masters and various forces. A number of which were not weaker than the Eight Great Families and could be considered transcendental great forces.
As early as a few months ago, the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land had been planning this action and had gone around capturing the descendants of various great forces. Even the men who had been attacking Dong Qing Yan outside Medicine King’s Valley were agents of the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land.
During their assault, which they had timed to coincide with the Alchemist Summit, they had used these kidnapped descendents as human shields in order to force the various masters sent to Medicine King’s Valley to stand aside and not act rashly.
This of course led to Medicine King’s Valley’s side being quickly overwhelmed.
Also, the purpose of this attack was not to destroy Medicine King’s Valley, but to capture Alchemists. Whether they were Medicine King’s Valley disciples or foreign Alchemist who had come to attend the Summit, the number they could grasp was the number they would take.
They had even had designs on the Pill Saint’s Statue, but the Statue itself was too large, and on top of that the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters of Medicine King’s Valley had desperately fought to defend it. Unfortunately, while the two sides were locked in combat the Pill Saint’s Statue was accidentally broken.
The entire time, the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land used all kinds of despicable methods to further suppress the Medicine King’s Valley’s side.
As for Hidden Cloud Peak, if it weren’t for Meng Wu Ya happening to be here right now, Xiao Fu Sheng would probably have long been captured.
Sifting through this information, Yang Kai soon grasped the immediate situation.
However, although the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land was known to be reckless and belligerent, it was still a mystery why they wanted to capture so many Alchemists.
The battle in the skies above was incredibly fierce, and although it was Meng Wu Ya versus six devil cultivators, he was still holding his own.
“Battle Array!” An old black haired man suddenly shouted.
Hearing this order, the six devil path cultivators suddenly scattered, arranged themselves into a mysterious Spirit Array formation, and unleashed a single coordinated strike, which caused Meng Wu Ya’s composed expression to suddenly become slightly grim.
Just as he was attempting to stabilize himself, the six enemies all exchanged a glance and one of the Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage masters suddenly broke formation and flew back down towards Hidden Cloud Peak.
Meanwhile, the remaining five masters ferociously attempted to impede Meng Wu Ya.
“You dare!” Meng Wu Ya roared while releasing a devastating strike, knocking his five opponents off balance, and then he took advantage of this momentary opening to launch a palm at the man flying towards Hidden Cloud Peak.
[Decaying Wood Divine Strike!] A Mysterious Grade Top-Rank Martial Skill!
A swift and invisible palm wind burst forth, immediately causing the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land Immortal Ascension Boundary master to sense danger and hastily dodge.
The Palm strike narrowly missed his body but brushed past his arm, instantly paralysing it, and just this brief contact made his whole arm shrivel up like a dead tree, and it quickly began to decay.
With his face stricken with panic, the man immediately began revolving a healing art to resist this encroachment.
Fortunately for him, he was only grazed by the palm wind, so he was still able to resist its effects, and his shriveled up arm slowly started to restore itself to its original appearance, which allowed his nerves to settle once again.
Laughing maniacally, the man once again sped off towards Hidden Cloud Peak, like an eagle swooping down towards his prey.
Yang Kai and the others, seeing this approaching enemy, all began to madly circulate their True Qi to raise their alertness.
On the summit, only Xiao Fu Sheng was an Immortal Ascension cultivator, but he was not one who could fight. Even if this man had only reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage, it was more than enough to kill them all!
As the attacking devil path cultivator approached, a ferocious grin appeared on his face as he yelled, “Xiao Fu Sheng, if you don’t want to die, then don’t resist! This old master just wants to invite you to our sacred land, there’s no need for this to get unpleasant!”
However, Old Xiao’s expression remained indifferent, totally unafraid.
This man then glanced towards Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan before sweeping his eyes over Dong Qing Yan and Xia Ning Chang. He stretched out his tongue and licked his lips, while grinning wantonly and said, “A gathering of delicious beauties… Unfortunately, today this old master has an important task to complete; we’ll have to enjoy ourselves together next time!”
Done talking, he swiped out his hand with a grabbing motion towards Xiao Fu Sheng.
In response, Old Xiao coldly snorted, raised his hand, and countered with his own punch.
Seeing this, the man sneered disdainfully and used just his fingers to crush the Martial Skill Xiao Fu Sheng had launched before continuing to extend his grip towards Xiao Fu Sheng’s shoulder.
Completing all this within the span of a breath, the man prepared to leave.
At that moment, Yang Kai, Xia Ning Chang, and Dong Qing Yan Qi simultaneously struck!
Although the three were only juniors, when they each released their full strength Martial Skills the devil path master’s expression suddenly changed, especially in the face of Yang Kai’s attack. With such a powerful strike composed of incredibly pure True Qi, taking it undefended would certainly be bad.
Quickly recovering his hand and swiftly resolving these three attacks, he violently snapped back, “Scram! This old master has no time to play with you!”
But before his voice had even faded, two slender palms suddenly struck towards him.
World Energy suddenly stirred, and the surrounding air was suddenly filled with numerous floating petals, as if the sky had opened up and flowers began raining down, a wondrous sight to behold.
Yang Kai was stunned by this unforeseen occurrence as were Xia Ning Chang and Dong Qing Yan.
Within this rain, Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan’s two images flashed. One by one they arrived beside the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land master. Their moves were swift and illusory, and their graceful bodies seemingly danced within the fluttering petals.
“You…” The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land’s cultivator was aghast, and he inadvertently inhaled some of the petals. His body immediately weakened a lot as he moaned, “You possess such skills!”
*Hmph!* Xiao Fu Sheng coldly snorted, “Since you’ve already come, don’t expect to ever leave.”
“It’s a trap!” The man howled mournfully. Whether it was Aunty Xiang or Aunty Lan, at the moment they both displayed strength in no way inferior to his own. So with the two of them together, and Xiao Fu Sheng eying him, even if he wanted to escape, he wouldn’t have a chance.
The two beautiful women remained silent, only gazing coldly at him.
Aunty Xiang soon flourished her hand, gracefully flicked her wrist, and sent one of the gently falling petals between her fingertips shooting forward.
*Puff!*, instantly, the seemingly weightless petal pierced the man’s shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain.
Aunty Lan on his other side also waved her hands. Her lithe body shuttled back and forth endlessly and caused the flower petals to flutter and swirl, enveloping the enemy, cutting off all avenues of escape.
Repeated screams rang out, until finally the whirlwind of flowers dissipated and the man reappeared. His clothes were ripped to shreds, and his body was beaten black and blue and covered all over in fresh blood.
Having just witnessed this scene, the three juniors all had faces filled with shock and awe.
Especially Yang Kai and Dong Qing Yan. Both of them had lived together with Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan far longer than Xia Ning Chang, but up until now they had never seen the slightest hint that they were cultivators.
In the outside world it was a widespread rumor that on Hidden Cloud Peak, in addition to Xiao Fu Sheng, the only other living people were two unknown ordinary maidservants who had been serving him for the past twenty years. Many people didn’t even know their names.
But just now, these two ordinary maids had revealed themselves to both actually be Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth or Sixth Stage masters.
This change was simply too great. Dong Qing Yan found it difficult to believe that the two beautiful women standing before here were the same delicate, gentle, and kind Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan she thought she knew so well.
Yang Kai suddenly understood why Old Xiao could act so aloof and leisurely. It turns out that there were two masters standing guard right next to him.
As the battle between Aunty Xiang, Aunty Lan and the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land master continued, it became more and more obvious that he had lost the strength to fight back. Amidst the rain of petals, the two women flashed to and fro, and each hit they landed caused a steady accumulation of damage, as they occupied the absolute advantage.
Soon after, a loud howling voice rang out in the distance.
Hearing this voice, the five masters who were fighting with Meng Wu Ya suddenly glanced at each other, then immediately ceased their attacks and abandoned their Battle Array positions to escape over the horizon.
Meng Wu Ya did not give chase and instead floating mid-air and breathed deeply, in an attempt to calm the raging blood within his chest.
As for the Immortal Ascension Boundary master currently pinned down on top of Hidden Cloud Peak, the moment he saw his companions leave, he understood that he no longer had any hope of escape. Then he actually let out a chuckle, and the next moment his True Qi ferociously surged, which caused the Evil Qi surrounding him to become even denser.
“Stop him!” Xiao Fu Sheng’s indifferent expression suddenly changed as he shoute.
However, it was too late, before Aunty Xiang and Aunty Lan had time to suppress him, his True Qi suddenly invisibly dissipated and his body suddenly appeared sluggish.
He actually destroyed his own meridians!
“Heh heh…” Before dying this man revealed a strange grain while disdainfully gazing towards the crowd, and with a cure he said, “The Demon Lord has returned, you cannot resist, hurry and submit to my Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land and perhaps you can live!”
Finished, he collapsed to the ground.
Xiao Fu Sheng’s face became solemn, involuntarily murmuring under his breath, “Demon Lord…”
The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land’s attack on Medicine King’s Valley resulted in hundreds of their disciples being abducted, along with three of their Elders. Those who had come to participate in the Alchemist Summit had also experienced heavy losses, and it was unknown just how many were missing.
In addition, the Great Forces had suffered numerous casualties. Everywhere one looked on Medicine King’s Valley twelve peaks, there were corpses and blood staining this once pure land. As for the valley town, countless houses had collapsed; the losses couldn’t even be calculated.
The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land’s actions had drawn condemnation from all sides and infuriated all the great forces. Within a day, even the Eight Great Families had sent their experts to join the counterattack discussions and assist in rescuing the abducted Alchemists.
However, the message Xiao Fu Sheng gave them had greatly shocked all those who had come.
The Demon Lord had returned!
This was what one of the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had said before dying.
The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land was an immense region, with numerous masters and devil path cultivators spread out across it, and because it was so grand in scale, it was divided up into six regions. Each one was governed by one of the six Great Demon Kings. Each region was distinct in its governance, and although each of them technically belonged to the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land, under normal circumstances, they did not interfere with each other, the well not drawing water from the river.
Above these six Demon Kings, was only the supreme Demon Lord!
And this Demon Lord position had been empty for hundreds of years.
The Demon Lord was not an easy position to obtain. Each of the six Demon Kings had great strength, and each one was superior to any of the Eight Great Families’ top masters. All of them had countless loyal subordinates, but after having shared control of the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land for so many years, none of them had dared claim the Demon Lord’s throne.
A hundred years ago, the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land had once had a Demon Lord. His strength and methods were unfathomable, which allowed him to reign over and slaughter countless lives. Finally, the masters from all of the Eight Great Families joined forces and launched a grand crusade, ultimately killing this man above the Weeping Wolf Abyss!
In that war, many of the Eight Great Families’ masters also perished!
It was only after a century of recovery that their full strength had been restored.
But now, a new Demon Lord had appeared in the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land. How could these masters not be shocked?
If it was someone else who had brought forward this news, no one would have believed him. No one would want to believe, but since it was Xiao Fu Sheng who said these words, the situation was not the same.
The whole world instantly became alert as a sense of tension gripped the land; spies from all of the Great Forces were frequently deployed to the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land to gather any scrap of reliable intelligence.
But what they reported was even more difficult to believe.
A mysterious new Demon Lord had indeed risen in the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land! What’s more, this person had seemingly just appeared and had swiftly seized absolute dominion over the six Demon Kings, now reigning unchallenged over the entire region.
The situation was far more precarious than imagined, and caused many to panic.
…
Atop Hidden Cloud Peak, Yang Kai bid Xiao Fu Sheng farewell.
His purpose in coming to Medicine King’s Valley had been achieved, and since he had not returned to High Heaven Pavilion for a long time, naturally he wished to return.
Xiao Fu Sheng, as if he had long ago anticipated such a parting, did not even appear the slightest bit surprised and instead just gently said, “Although I know you came to Medicine King’s Valley for different reasons, since fate brought you to my Hidden Cloud Peak, you are now also my Hidden Cloud Peak’s disciple. In the future, if you wish, you will be welcome here.”
“En.” Yang Kai, feeling somewhat guilty, simply nodded in acknowledgement.
Xia Ning Chang was also reluctant to part, but knowing Yang Kai had to go, she did not try to retain him.
Moreover, Yang Kai had already discussed this matter with her the night before, and had also given her a drop of Brilliant Flame Liquid and a drop of Soul Cleansing Dew, as well as a large quantity of Myriad Drug Liquid. Given how Xia Ning Chang had already reached the True Element Boundary Seventh Stage, and given the rapid progress of her cultivation, with these things it shouldn’t be a problem for her to break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary.
Yang Kai had also given a drop of Brilliant Flame Liquid to Dong Qing Yan, which would allow her to greatly increase the purity of her True Qi as she broke through the True Element Boundary.
Not only that, Yang Kai had also taught everything he had learned from the True Alchemic Way about Alchemic Spirit Arrays to Xia Ning Chang, which allowed her to study it and pass along her insights to Xiao Fu Sheng.
Yang Kai believed that with the assistance of these Spirit Arrays, Xiao Fu Sheng should be able to refine a pill above Mysterious Grade.
Although this wouldn’t really be a true Spirit Grade pill, but it should still be enough to satisfy Xiao Fu Sheng’s lifelong wish.
Old Xiao, Aunty Xiang, and Aunty Lan were all very good to him, but in return all he could give them was this Spirit Array.
After descending Hidden Cloud Peak, Yang Kai greatly increased his pace and pushed his True Qi as he raced towards High Heaven Pavilion.
Seven or eight days later, Yang Kai finally returned to Sect.
But at the moment he returned to High Heaven Pavilion, Yang Kai felt that something was not quite right.
The whole of High Heaven Pavilion was filled with a lingering Demonic Qi.
Yang Kai’s pace once again sped up. Dashing around the various locations within the Sect, he was surprised to find that whole High Heaven Pavilion was filled with a gloomy air and traces of battle left behind everywhere he went, as well as many High Heaven Pavilion disciples hurriedly carrying their belongings away from the Sect.
“This Senior Brother!” Yang Kai not understanding what was going on quickly stopped one of these fleeing disciples.
“What is it!?” The man impatiently roared, but upon discovering who it was who stopped him, his complexion changed slightly, “Are you Yang Kai?”
As he spoke, his demeanor become significantly more respectful, after all, since a year ago, the incident with Yang Kai and Bai Yun Feng had become quite famous.
“What happened to the Sect, where are all of you going?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
“It’s difficult to say,” the man quickly replied, breaking free from Yang Kai’s grip, “You should ask the Sect Master and the Elders yourself.”
Apparently finished, the man turned around and rushed off.
Yang Kai frowned in confusion, but at this time something stirred within his heart and caused him to look up at a white figure flying towards him from the distance.
It was Su Yan.
As in the past, Su Yan was still as cold and beautiful as ever. Having not seen her for a year, her cultivation had grown significantly, and with her increase in strength, the frigid aura she radiated was likewise more powerful than ever. Only when her eyes met Yang Kai’s did this icy temperament, frigid enough to freeze anything in the world around her, becoming gentler.
With a burst of fragrant wind, she gently fell in front of Yang Kai, and her exquisite face showed a small smile, “You’ve returned?”
Yang Kai nodded slightly and asked, “What happened here?”
Su Yan’s bright eyes suddenly became dark, and she gripped Yang Kai’s arm before saying, “Many things have happened, I’ll tell you as we walk.”
Speaking till here, her body began floating up, while Yue Kai also circulated his True Qi and quickly kept up with her.
Feeling this True Qi fluctuation, Su Yan turned her eyes towards Yang Kai in surprise, “You’ve reached the True Element Third Stage?”
Yang Kai simply grinned, “En.”
“You really grow so fast!”
“You as well. You’ve already broken through the True Element Eighth Stage!” Yang Kai was also surprised at how quickly Su Yan’s cultivation had increased while he had left to gain life experience. During that time it was only due to a wide variety of opportunities that he had been able to cultivate so quickly, yet Su Yan had only stayed within the Sect in penance, but had also grow to this extent. If she had the same opportunities and resources as him, she may have grown even more than even he had.
Hearing Yang Kai praise her, Su Yan’s white jade face slightly blushed as she whispered back in a voice filled with happiness, “My Ice Heart Secret Art depends greatly on my state of mind while I cultivate, my mood has improved greatly over this past year, so my strength has also grown significantly.”
Yang Kai grinned knowingly, aware that it was because she had to constantly overcome the ‘side effects’ of their Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art that her mental strength had improved so much. He chuckled evilly before suddenly pressing his lips onto hers.
Su Yan, caught by surprise, was slightly upset with his forwardness, but she also did not try to resist.
“Where are we going?” Yang Kai until now had simply been following behind her, but he couldn’t help squinting his eyes and frowning, “Are we headed to the Sect Master’s secluded retreat?”
Su Yan nodded gently as her expression suddenly became sad and mournful, “Sect Master has ordered that if you come back, we have to immediately bring you to see him.”
“What happened to Sect Master?” Yang Kai quickly noticed Su Yan’s grim expression and immediately asked.
Su Yan lightly bit her lip and only replied after a long silence, “He has been injured and it’s not light…”
“Who was it?” Yang Kai’s expression instantly sank. His Grand Master, Ling Tai Xu’s, strength was not much worse than Meng Wu Ya’s. His aptitude was also outstanding. If it were not for the matters regarding his two disciples causing him to stagnate for more than ten years, he would have long ago surpassed the Immortal Ascension Boundary and arrived at the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary realm.
Such a master was now seriously injured, and from Su Yan’s expression it seemed this injury was by no means normal, but who could wound him like this?
“It was Sect Master’s Second Disciple!”
“What?” Yang Kai was shocked, reacting unconsciously, “But wasn’t he…”
“En, but he managed to escape from the Coiling Dragon Stream and had somehow cultivated his Demonic Secret Art to an unfathomable height. During that day’s battle, in the sky above High Heaven Pavilion, all of the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters along with Sect Master were seriously injured. Fourth Elder Zhou Fei was killed on the spot, and all the other Elders were wounded, and countless disciples also fell…” Su Yan voice trembled as she spoke before finally releasing a deep sigh, “If it weren’t for Sect Master’s desperate resistance during that battle, by now, all of High Heaven Pavilion…”
“When did this all happen?”
“About one and a half months ago …” Su Yan shook her head and sighed, “The aftermath of has not yet been cleared, and residual Demonic Qi still blankets much of High Heaven Pavilion. All of the disciples constantly have to use their artifacts to resist this corruption. Many of them, fear being implicated and have also packed up their things and left the Sect.”
Yang Kai frowned deeply, finally understanding why the Sect had become like this.
However, that Second Disciple actually being able to escape from the Coiling Dragon Stream was a development no one had foreseen. The Coiling Dragon Stream, for hundreds of years, had been used to imprison countless people, yet none had ever managed to escape. However, Sect Master’s Second Disciple had somehow accomplished this.
That year, Ling Tai Xu had personally captured him, but due to their mentoring relationship, he could not bring himself to ruthlessly kill him, instead choosing to waste his cultivation and imprison him within the Coiling Dragon Stream, but in doing so he had unexpectedly planted the seed of High Heaven Pavilion’s disaster, which had now sprouted more than ten years later.
If he had only known then, Ling Tai Xu would never have allowed his disciple to live.
As they talked, the two of them had arrived at the Sect Master’s residence.
However, before even stepping inside, Yang Kai felt a rich wave of Demonic Qi blow towards him, which caused his brow to wrinkle deeply.
“Go inside, Sect Master has been waiting for you!” Su Yan gently said.
Yang Kai nodded, opened the door, and stepped forward, but the sight that greeted his eyes sent a shiver up his spine.
A year ago, when they had separated at Nether Mountain, Grand Master had been in high spirits, bantering back and forth with Ghost King Valley’s Gui Li about fighting a life and death battle, but now he appeared extremely haggard and was covered with a thick black gas, apparently enduring serious injuries and was unable to suppress the Demonic Qi which had invaded his body.
Somehow sensing Yang Kai’s presence, the bedridden Ling Tai Xu’s fingers slightly twitched as his eyes seemed to be trying to open.
Yang Kai felt as if his heart was being clenched, and he quickly stepped forward.
Inside the house, in addition to Ling Tai Xu, there was only a High Hall Pavilion Alchemist watching over him.
This Alchemist’s cultivation was not high, probably only True Element Boundary Seventh or Eighth Stage, but he was clearly disciple from the previous generation.
“Martial Uncle, how is the Sect Master’s condition?” Yang Kai hesitantly asked.
However, the man could only slowly shake his head, “Things are not good, I’m afraid, before long… he…”
Within the room, Yang Kai walked up to Ling Tai Xu, placed two fingers on his wrist, and closed his eyes to concentrate.
Sweeping him with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai’s heart gradually sank.
Ling Tai Xu’s five viscera and six organs had all been damaged, and an untold number of his bones had been broken. His vitality was fading, and his blood force was all but completely depleted.
The True Qi flow within his body was weak and sporadic, while many of his meridians had ruptured making it impossible to circulate his Secret Art.
Not only that, but throughout his body there was a large amount of Demonic Qi, which was continuing to eat away at his life force and erode his True Qi. If he hadn’t used the last vestiges of his pure True Qi to protect his heart, Ling Tai Xu would likely have died long ago.
The word heavy couldn’t even begin to describe the state of his Grand Master’s injuries, and it was a miracle that he was even still alive at this point and would more than likely pass on any moment now.
Him using his last trace of True Qi like this was probably only in order to preserve his life long enough for Yang Kai to return safely. After all, he had sent Yang Kai into a dangerous isolate world for life experience but had until now not heard any news of him.
“Is there any medicine you can give him?” Yang Kai asked.
However, his Alchemist martial uncle could only grimly shake his head, “With Sect Master condition, what medicine could I offer? Some time ago I gave him some pills, but now there is nothing I dare give him.”
Yang Kai nodded slightly, Grand Master’s body was now too weak. If he was given something that couldn’t immediately bring him back from the gates of death, it would instead only cause him to consume the remainder of his True Qi, which would instantly bring about his death.
Fortunately, he was here now.
Yang Kai frowned for a moment before saying, “Martial Uncle, please leave first, I have something to say to Sect Master.”
The High Heaven Pavilion Alchemist hesitated but eventually got up and left. Although he did not know what it was that Yang Kai and Ling Tai Xu needed to discuss, but he did know that before the Sect Master fell into a coma, he had given instructions for Yang Kai to be brought to him immediately should he return.
Sect Master valued Yang Kai, so the relationship between the two was obviously not normal.
Waiting until his Martial Uncle left, Yang Kai quickly brought out some Myriad Drug Cream from the storage space in his Black Book.
He did not dare to use too much, only a half thumbnail portion.
Yang Kai didn’t know if the Myriad Drug Cream could serve as a life-saving medicine, but now it was his best and only hope. After all, it was the most concentrated medicinal essence from millions of pills condensed over the course of thousands of years.
Fetching a teacup, Yang Kai quickly dissolved this Myriad Drug Cream in some hot water.
Then, ever so gently, he brought this cup to Ling Tai Xu’s mouth and slowly made him drink it.
Although it was just half a tea cup of hot water, it was still quite some time before Ling Tai Xu could drink it down.
After this, Yang Kai carefully stretched out his hands, pressed them onto Ling Tai Xu’s chest, and slowly began pouring in his own True Qi to help him refine the medicinal effects.
At the same time, he fully released his Divine Sense and carefully monitored any changes that went on within his Grand Master.
As soon as he began refining this Myriad Drug Cream, Yang Kai clearly felt that Ling Tai Xu’s originally flickering vitality instantly strengthened and the blood flow within his body gradually intensified. Even his heartbeat became more powerful than before.
[It’s working!]
Yang Kai smiled happily and slightly increased the output of his True Qi.
Yang Kai quickly thanked the Heavens, as his nerves began to calm. Just now, Ling Tai Xu was really too weak, if he could not bear the medicinal effects of the Myriad Drug, and it hadn’t instantly begun to restore him to life, his actions would have been tantamount to ending Ling Tai Xu’s life.
This man was his father’s, Yang Siye’s, master! He was also Yang Kai’s Grand Master, so how could he not have been worried?
Fortunately, the Myriad Drug Cream had not disappointed him.
After a moment, Ling Tai Xu’s dantian slowly began to fill with True Qi, and with Yang Kai assisting in the process this True Qi once more began flowing through his meridians, repairing the damage that had been done to them as it circulated. Using his Divine Sense to monitor this, Yang Kai witnessed the entire process as Ling Tai Xu’s five viscera and six organs quickly began to heal.
As a hint of colour began returning to his deathly pale face, Ling Tai Xu unconsciously let out a sigh of relief as the pain gradually subsided.
Seeing this scene, Yang Kai also felt relieved.
The Myriad Drug Cream really could restore someone from the brink of death.
A stick of incense later, a burst of footsteps came from beyond the door, which caused Yang Kai to wrinkle his brow slightly and perk up his ears to listen.
After a moment, a group of people entered from the front door.
Yang Kai immediately heard the voice of Su Xuan Wu, “I heard that Yang Kai is back?”
Su Yan gently replied, “Well, he’s inside.”
Great Elder Wei Xi Tong’s voice also called out, “How come you’re out here and not by Sect Master’s side?”
Clearly this question was directed at the High Heaven Pavilion Alchemist.
However, this man simply replied, “Martial Nephew Yang said he had something to say to Sect Master in private…”
“Stop screwing around!” Wei Xi Tong screamed, “Sect Master is unconscious, how could they be discussing anything!?”
Great Elder Wei did not understand why the Sect Master valued Yang Kai so much, even taking great pains before he slipped into a coma to issue an order for him to be brought to him the moment he returned.
Although he had indeed triumphed over Bai Yun Feng when he was just a Separation and Reunion Boundary First Stage, but that shouldn’t have caused the Sect Master to admire him so. It couldn’t be that the Sect Master really wanted to make him the next master of High Heaven Pavilion, right?
This idea was quite uncomfortable for Wei Xi Tong. His relationship with Yang Kai was not harmonious, so naturally he didn’t want to see such a situation come to pass.
Speaking till here, Wei Xi Tong led this group of Elders into Ling Tai Xu’s room.
However, upon entering, the four High Heaven Pavilion Elders were shocked by what they saw. Yang Kai had both his hands pressed onto the Sect Master’s chest and was injecting his own True Qi into him.
“Little bastard!” Wei Xi Tong angrily bellowed, because the Sect Master was in an extremely frail state; even touching him would cause severe harm so how could he possibly endure having True Qi forced into him?
Wasn’t this the same as killing him?
Furious, Wei Xi Tong raised his hand and shot a palm strike towards Yang Kai’s back.
Su Yan’s eyes flashed a cold light, but before she could strike Su Xuan Wu had already sent out his own palm to intercept Wei Xi Tong’s.
The two palm strikes collided mid-air and caused an explosive wind before dissipating.
“Second Brother Su, what are you doing?” Wei Xi Tong glared angrily towards Su Xuan Wu.
Su Xuan Wu, holding down his own inner anger, frowned and shot back, “I would also like to ask First Senior Brother what he is trying to do.”
Wei Xi Tong’s voice sank, “What am I doing? Can you not see what this little bastard is doing right now? Do you want to just stand by and watch him kill our Sect Master?”
“Shut your mouth!” Yang Kai glanced backwards and viciously cursed with a cold expression adorning his face.
While it was true that he did not like Great Elder Wei Xi Tong, especially considering all the times he had acted against him, but he understood at this moment that Wei Xi Tong was truly concerned about the Sect Master as well, so Yang Kai was willing to let a certain amount of this go. However, listening to this noisy self-righteous ass say whatever he wanted still irritated him.
Wei Xi Tong was stunned for a moment, never imagining that this little brat would dare use this kind of tone to speak with him.
But just as Great Elder Wei recovered his wits and was about to sternly educate this arrogant junior, he heard a light cough, followed soon after by Ling Tai Xu’s voice, “Do not quarrel.”
The sound was weak, but it was really Ling Tai Xu’s voice.
The four High Heaven Pavilion Elders were all shocked. Their eyes shot open, and each of their faces was plastered with expressions of disbelief. Each of them couldn’t help but think that they were hearing things because just now they had heard the comatose Ling Tai Xu speak.
“Sect Master?” Wei Xi Tong yelped and shifted his astonished gaze towards the bed, only to see Ling Tai Xu slowly open his eyes and glance back at him.
“Sect Master, you’ve awoken?” Su Xuan Wu hesitantly asked as he stepped forward. Third Elder He Bei Shui and Fifth Elder You Zi Zai quickly followed after.
“Sect Master…” Finally certain that the Sect Master had really woken up, these old men all found their voices trembling, and their eyes suddenly wet. Even the normally staunch and rigid Wei Xi Tong was so. The Sect Master waking up, to them, was like the bright moon had finally emerged from behind the dark clouds, like a heavy stone had suddenly been lifted from their hearts.
High Heaven Pavilion could not be without Ling Tai Xu, especially now, at this critical juncture.
“You all go out first.” Sect Master lightly said.
“Yes, Sect Master!” These few didn’t dare have the slightest hesitation, and respectfully bowed before quickly leaving. All of them sent curious looks towards Yang Kai while they did, and each of them wondered just what kind of miraculous means he had used to bring the fatally wounded Sect Master back from death’s door.
As soon as the last person had left and the door was once again closed, Yang Kai smiled towards Ling Tai Xu, “Greetings, Grand Master!”
Ling Tai Xu looked at Yang Kai and murmured gratefully, “Good, it is good you have returned!”
Saying this, his expression gradually relaxed, and he actually fell back asleep.
But unlike before, this was not a final rest but a peaceful one instead, which allowed Yang Kai to let out a sigh of relief.
Outside the house, the four Elders all glanced around at each other thoroughly confused.
The High Heaven Pavilion Alchemist was also the same.
Half an hour before, Ling Tai Xu’s life had all but been extinguished, but now he had somehow woken up, and from the look on his face, he also seemed to have recovered quite a bit. His vitality and blood force seemed to be restored significantly.
“What kind of wondrous pill did you give to Sect Master?” Wei Xi Tong asked the Alchemist.
However, the latter simply shook his head, “Nothing, Sect Master’s body had become so weak that any pill I fed him would have killed him rather than helped.”
These old men were more and more surprised.
“Perhaps it was something that Yang Kai did?” You Zi Zai said hesitantly said. All of them were well aware of just how grave the Sect Master’s injuries were, and they also knew that it was simply beyond their abilities to help in any way, but after this kid had shown up he had somehow woken up.
“How could that be?” He Bei Shui clearly didn’t believe that Yang Kai possessed such Heaven defying abilities, “What could he possibly have done with his level of strength? And even if he had such amazing strength, where would he have gotten such an amazing healing pill, something that could even restore someone to health from the brink of death?”
Wei Xi Tong also frowned and murmured, “This is really strange…”
Su Xuan Wu on the other hand just coldly snorted. “Sect Master waking up is a good thing, why agonize over how it happened so much, we just have to wait unit Sect Master’s injuries stabilize and then ask him, all this guessing right now is pointless.”
“En, what Second Brother Su says is correct.” Great Elder Wei’s expression finally loosened. Sect Master waking up was a joyous event, so why should they work themselves up over how it happened?
“Good, I will also go back and continue healing.” Wei Xi Tong declared, not digging any deeper into this situation.
The other few Elders also hurriedly kept up with Great Elder Wei. Each of them had similarly suffered heavy wounds in the previous battle, and only after a period of recovery had they had finally stabilized themselves, but it was not like they had been completely restored.
For the next several days, Yang Kai constantly tended to Ling Tai Xu and provided him with a steady stream of Myriad Drug Cream so that his Grand Master’s condition could continue to improve day by day until four or five days later when his injuries had finally healed.
The only thing left to deal with now was the Demonic Qi still inside his body, which manifested as a faint dark gas surrounding him.
A few days later, within Ling Tai Xu’s retreat.
Yang Kai noticed a deep, profound light hidden within his Grand Master’s eyes while the old man smiled. Finally, he was able to speak after a prolonged silence, “I will not ask you what medicine you gave me, nor will I ask where you obtained it. From now on, you will say that my returning from death’s door was because of my own willpower, that I could not simply accept dying while I had unfulfilled wishes… It does not have the slightest relationship with you at all!”
Yang Kai nodded solemnly, “This disciple understands!”
At first glance, Ling Tai Xu’s words seemed ungrateful and unreasonable, but Yang Kai clearly understood that they were said specifically to protect him.
A medicine that could heal such fatal injuries and restore one to life, a matter of such importance, others would covet it regardless of whether it true or not. For such an item, how could Ling Tai Xu allow him to shoulder such a burden?
“Grand Master, thank you for loaning this to me.” Yang Kai took the Universe Bag out from his sleeve and said.
However, Ling Tai Xu did not accept it. Instead, he smiled, “This was given to you by Grand Master, how could I take it back?”
Yang Kai laughed, “I no longer require it.”
Now that he had the wordless Black Book’s storage space, this Universe Bag really was nothing to him.
But Ling Tai Xu slowly shook his head, “It is your now, if you really have no further use for it, you may grant it to another. Grand Master gave it to you as a gift.”
Yang Kai could only nod, no longer insisting as he placed the Universe Bag back into his sleeve.
Wrinkling his brows, Yang Kai inquired, “Your injuries…”
Ling Tai Xu grinned, “Nothing serious. My strength has been restored to its peak already. Somewhat… my current state is beyond what I was…”
Hearing this, Yang Kai joyous, but still remained largely curious. “Grand Master, the Demonic Qi within your body has yet to fully disperse…”
Ling Tai Xu became pensive before replying, “I am aware of this, but after refining the miraculous medicine you gave me, I think that so long as I can fully disperse this Demonic Qi, my cultivation will advance another stage!”
Ling Tai Xu was already a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator, so breaking through another stage would mean rising to the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary!
An Above Immortal Ascension Boundary master was something that even first-class Sects would only have one or two of. Even amongst this world’s superpowers, they were rare.
If Ling Tai Xu could really arrive at the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary, this entire fiasco may become a blessing in disguise.
[Could Myriad Drug Cream help improve a cultivator’s martial prowess?] Yang Kai really didn’t know if it actually had such a wonderful effect; but it was, after all, the most concentrated medicinal essence from within that ancient well. Having such a benefit was not unreasonable.
“Congratulations, Grand Master!” Yang Kai was sincerely happy for Ling Tai Xu, especially knowing that it was issued with his Second Disciple that had caused his ten-year stagnation, otherwise, he would have already had a broken through.
Ling Tai Xu simply smiled, slowly shaking his head.
Letting out a sigh, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly become solemn, “Grand Master, did your Second Disciple really escape from the Coiling Dragon Stream?”
When these words were uttered, Ling Tai Xu’s eyes flashed a trace of hidden grief before he sighed and nodded. “Yes… that year, I was certain that I had crippled his cultivation, and then trapped him inside the Coiling Dragon Stream. I allowed him to fend for himself, but to somehow being able to escape within ten years was completely beyond my expectations. My guess is, he should have encountered some kind of incredible opportunity, and managed to restore his strength, even surpassing his old height and pushing his Demonic Cultivation Technique a step further!”
The Coiling Dragon Stream was created by High Heaven Pavilion’s Ancestral Founder during his battle with a powerful devil, and apparently when this devil died he had left something behind. Ling Tai Xu’s Second Disciple must have inadvertently obtained this inheritance.
This Second Disciple seemed to have great fated luck.
“He not only managed to escape the Coiling Dragon Stream, but has also become the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land’s Demon Lord!”
“What!?” Yang Kai nearly cried out in shock, “He is the new Demon Lord?”
This time it was Ling Tai Xu’s turn to be surprised, “You’ve met him?”
“I haven’t seen him myself, but a few days ago, Medicine King’s Valley suffered a massive attack from the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land. I heard it was at his command!”
“What is the current situation? Quickly! Tell me!” Ling Tai Xu did not seem to know about this recent Medicine King’s Valley incident.
This was not because High Heaven Pavilion had not received information about this event, but Ling Tai Xu had been unconscious after suffering grievous wounds since a month and a half ago, so High Heaven Pavilion’s Elders had not had a chance to inform him.
“On the last day of the Alchemist Summit, the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land launched an assault after kidnapping and holding hostage many core disciple and true descendants of the various Great Forces…” Yang Kai began recanting his experiences.
Ling Tai Xu’s expression became gloomier as he did, until near the end, his expression became quite downtrodden.
“If what you said is true… Then, I’m afraid that as early as six months ago, or perhaps even longer, he had already managed to escape the Coiling Dragon Stream. It was just that he didn’t decide to attack High Heaven Pavilion until now…” His expression becoming serious, “The situation is grave!”
“What do you mean?” Yang Kai asked anxiously.
“If outsiders were to learn that the new Demon Lord had come from High Heaven Pavilion… then…” Ling Tai Xu’s expression became ugly.
High Heaven Pavilion was only a second-class Sect, but if they knew that the Demon Lord had risen from this place, the world’s Great Forces would certainly come here to seek answers!
Regardless of whatever else he had or may do, this Demon Lord’s appearance had led to Medicine King’s Valley being attacked and the Pill Saint’s Statue being destroyed. Just this one even was enough to shake the world’s foundations, but with these two combined?
“You go see that Su Yan girl. A year has passed, and I’m sure you have much to talk about. This old man must to enter retreat for a few days.” Ling Tai Xu quickly said. Obviously, he needed to consider how to handle this catastrophe.
The world’s walls were made of wind, it wouldn’t be long before the Demon Lord’s origins were discovered, and when that happened, High Heaven Pavilion would certainly face dire consequences.
Leaving the Sect Master’s residence, Yang Kai let out a sigh. In the face of the Sect’s crisis, his personal strength was simply too small to make a difference.
Flying over High Heaven Pavilion, as he looked around, Yang Kai could see that the situation was bleak. More and more disciples were leaving, and no one even tried to stop them.
Arriving in front of Su Yan’s small house, Yang Kai quickly set down.
Pushing open the door to her room, he found Su Yan sitting inside on her bed, like a thousand-year ice sculpture, impervious to the outside world’s changes.
Aware of Yang Kai’s arrival, Su Yan slowly opened her eyes, her cold and elegant expression giving way to a slightly flushed smile mixed with a hint of shyness, a truly attractive sight.
Yang Kai stepped forward, trying to hold down the throbbing in his heart as he sat down opposite her upon the bed.
As their four eyes met, Yang Kai’s were filled with endless desire while Su Yan’s were calm, like a windless lake, and filled with bottomless beauty.
In that instant, he wanted nothing more than to cross the distance between them and taste her wondrous lips; feel her skin upon his own, and indulge in each other’s presence. Naturally, Yang Kai believed Su Yan would surely not refuse.
But… within Yang Kai’s heart, a strange feeling irked him to refrain.
The current relationship between him and Su Yan could be said to be entirely a result of their dual cultivation of the Joyous Unification Art. It was very different from how he and his Little Senior Sister Xia Ning Chang came to know each other.
The two of them, in fact, had very little interaction up to now. Instead, it could be said that conversing together was quite rare.
However, every time Yang Kai had returned to the Sect, he and Su Yan had almost immediately fallen into indiscrete throes of passion; this type of exchange was not like a men and women who were in love, and longed for each other with all their hearts.
It was more like trying to fulfill an unconscious act of cultivation!
Such a feeling made Yang Kai feel a little disgusted with himself.
The Yin Yang Monster Ginseng he had acquired earlier had yet to play a significant role until now; this was precisely because their intimate relations were closer to forced events than blossomed emotions.
If he wanted the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng to really fulfill its purpose, Yang Kai could not allow the current state of things to persist.
Although it was undeniable that the root cause of their relationship was the Joyous Unification Art, Yang Kai did not want the feelings between the two of them to forever remain simply an advantageous cultivation partnership.
A deep mutual affinity… How many couples in this cultivation world could truly achieve such a thing? Even amongst those old married couples who held great respect for one another, it was still a rare occurrence.
“What are you thinking about?” Su Yan asked gently as she looked towards Yang Kai, quickly noticing the aggressive light which filled his eyes fading away as the burning passion he radiated slowly calming.
This was very different from the past. Usually, every time they two of them reunited and found themselves alone, he would decisively strip her of her clothes and immediately disrobing himself… then…
“I want your body!” Yang Kai grinned as he calmly declared as such.
Hearing this, Su Yan’s white neck blushed slightly, whispering, “It is already yours.”
“But I want your heart even more!”
Su Yan suddenly looked up as she gazed suspiciously towards Yang Kai, her eyes slowly revealing a glimmer of happiness.
“You should understand what I mean when I say this.” Yang Kai smiled.
Su Yan only nodded silently.
It wasn’t until today that Yang Kai understood what was missing between him and Su Yan, but Su Yan had long ago already seen through this, it was simply that she had not said anything. A woman in front of a man would always feel reserved, especially in front of a man she liked, even if she understood that some of his behaviour was inappropriate. Even if she had a longing for something more within her heart, before he noticed it himself, a woman would not bring such things to light.
This was how a wise and gracious woman behaved.
Only by letting him discover such things on his own would her man really mature.
“Shall we do this together?” Yang Kai tilted his head and smiled.
Su Yan simply nodded, a misty look slowly appearing upon her enchanting eyes.
She had been waiting for this moment for quite some time now.
Men and women were not the same; to a woman, their first man would always leave a special impression. Since the time they had first cultivated together, and through the seemingly endless periods of waiting and longing, Su Yan had long ago decided to dedicate her body and soul completely to the young man before her.
The only thing that she was waiting for was for Yang Kai to become aware of this simple yet profound insight.
And now that Yang Kai finally understood, Su Yan was naturally quite content.
At this moment, the relationship between the two of them became more than simply a result of the Joyous Unification Art, and had evolved into true feelings of love between man and woman.
Now, even if the Joyous Unification Art were to disappear, they would not easily separate from one another.
They had taken one step closer to each other, and although they had not reached a true state of uniting their hearts as one at this time, there was now hope that one day they would.
Sitting together, face to face, Yang Kai mouth show a bright smile as he stretched out his hands and laid them atop Su Yan’s lap.
Su Yan then slowly rested her jade white palms upon Yang Kai’s.
Softer than cotton; tender and fragrant; pure as ice; Su Yan’s delicate hands felt incredibly comfortable.
Gentling holding one another, the two smiled warmly towards each other before closing their eyes and circulating their Secret Art.
In Joyous Unification Art’s first stage they needed to have intimate physical contact so that the Yuan Qi could flow freely between them. While this was the most raw and fundamental stage, it also had a unique charm because each and every time they cultivated it was a warm and passionate experience.
This was what Yang Kai did before.
However, the second stage of this dual cultivation art was about their respective states or mind, synchronizing their thoughts so that even with only the slightest of contact they would be able to run this Secret Art.
Yang Kai’s sudden insight had allowed the two to enter this new stage, causing the Joyous Unification Art to advance a step and allowing the dual cultivation between him and Sun Yan to be more rapid and efficient.
As one expects, gambling is a fool’s game, and he slowly ended up in debt. However, before his wallet became red, his wife pleaded him to stop. Naturally, he promised to do so, a lie. In just a mere three days, he returned to his old habits. This time, however, he did so more discreetly. Wearing a watch to when he went off, though sometimes forgetting to return on time. I mean, gambling is called an addiction for a reason right?
This carried on with the wife not muttering a word. A month, no two. She took it in silence. ‘There is no complaint. So, this matter must no longer be a problem in her eyes.’ he slowly lied to himself as the days passed, to truly believe in it.
Of course, he returned back to his old habits, and the wife continued to endure. It was one strange day, where he returned home earlier than usual due to a cancelled game with his friends that his heart broke.
He opened his metal door as per usual, even stepping close to the door but he heard a faint sob. He slowly turned the knob of his bedroom door to peek inside, finding his wife in a daze; eyes red, as droplets rolled down her cheeks. Her gaze was stuck at none other than a wedding photo placed on their desk.
His heart sank but he kept silent. ‘It’s all my fault’, he knew, yet, what could he do? He looked at the time and slowly closed the door again. He decided to return back home at the usual time, bidding his time at a eatery.
There, he order a simple cup coffee, but could not finish his drink. He too, sat there in a daze, as the scene of his wife replayed in his mind. A middle age woman who he had spent 12 years with, crying alone. Someone, who said nothing and bore with everything, She knew nagging would do nothing to convince him. She knew, that he would not stop regardless of what she did. So, she said nothing.
She was ready to bare everything for her husband and yet what was he doing?
Useless? Trash? all these describers were suited for him. Even he, himself cursed his uselessness. But mostly, he was ashamed of himself.
As time went on, he finally returned home with his eyes downcast. There, his heart sank even further as he saw his wife was snuggly tucked in bed, asleep as though nothing went wrong. There, he felt like crying. ‘She’s someone I don’t deserve.’
There, he shook his head and immediately took the majong case. Ashamed by his own actions, he went downstairs and threw the case into the rubbish compartment. As the case entered the void, so too did his addiction, as he never gambled again.
End
Once the third stage was reached, and a real connection between their hearts and minds was formed, even if the two of them were separated by tens of thousands of meters, the True Qi within their bodies would still resonate with one another, and a steady cycle would endlessly continue.
At that point, when the two of them were together, their combat strength would also dramatically increase, and they could use the full range of the Joyous Unification Art’s offensive skills.
The True Qi within Yang Kai body flowed into Su Yan’s, and then from Su Yan’s body back into Yang Kai, the two True Qis smelting and refining one another, continuously enhancing and purifying. As time passed, not just their True Qi experienced a blending; even each of their consciousness began to merge.
It was like an intangible entanglement of their souls, instilling a deep yearning and connection within them so that even without talking, they would be able to clearly feel each other’s presence and even the slightest touch between them would send trembles through their bodies.
A dragon’s roar echoed from Yang Kai body and a phoenix cry responded from Su Yan’s.
As the two of them cultivated within the small house, the glowing images of a dragon and phoenix slowly appeared. If one were to look closely at their clothes, on Yang Kai and Su Yan’s back, they would see a dragon and phoenix gently swimming upon them, seemingly accompanying each other in a majestic dance; the two’s dual cultivation technique circulating more rapidly than ever before.
This time’s breakthrough led to Yang Kai and Su Yan circulating their Yin Yang Joyous Unification Art for a full five days, constantly blending and refining their True Qi, washing away all the anxiety of separation the two had accumulated.
During this time, not only did Yang Kai’s strength improve greatly, Su Yan also reaped a huge harvest.
The two of them did not engage in any great physical intimacy, but they both faintly felt that this dual cultivation had greatly deepened the feelings they had for one another, like they had somehow touched upon the desires they both felt for one another in their hearts.
From when they met until the time the parted, Yang Kai never once acted uncouth.
Su Yan had spent the last year thoroughly honing her mental state, tempering it by resisting the base desires within her heart; if at this time Yang Kai were to press his desires upon her, it would likely destroy her year’s worth of effort, causing her to fall short of an important enlightenment.
For the sake of her future cultivation, Yang Kai had no choice but to remain patient.
Before leaving her, Yang Kai gave Ling Tai Xu’s Universe Bag to Su Yan, along with a few kilograms of Myriad Drug Liquid, Myriad Drug Milk, and two bottles of Myriad Drug Cream.
If taken over a long period of time, the Myriad Drug Liquid would improve a cultivator’s physique. This opportunity was something he naturally would share with his women so that, as long one or two months passed, Su Yan could be reborn.
From the beginning, her aptitude was already top class, so once she experienced this rebirth, her future horizons would essentially be limitless.
In addition, Yang Kai left her a drop each of Soul Cleansing Dew and Brilliant Flame Liquid. Refining the Brilliant Flame Liquid now would allow Su Yan’s True Qi to become purer, while the Soul Cleansing Dew would bring her great benefits once she reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary.
It was something she would be using in the near future.
Leaving Su Yan’s small hut, Yang Kai immediately flew to the Coiling Dragon Stream.
As he approached, Yang Kai began to see the thick black demonic atmosphere rising from the bottom of the Coiling Dragon Stream, seemingly gathering atop it.
More than a dozen kilometers above the Coiling Dragon Stream was covered in a great black cloud, radiating an overwhelming evil aura.
Since the Sect Master’s Second Disciple had publicly broken out, the Coiling Dragon Stream and surrounding region had become so.
With the concentration of Demonic Qi here, the short term impact on one would not be too great, but if this situation continued indefinitely, a radius of hundreds of kilometers from here would no longer be suitable for those of the righteous path to cultivate upon.
Disciples from all of the Three Sects in this region would be implicated.
During this period, people from the Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall had already come to the High Heaven Pavilion to protest, but seeing High Heaven Pavilion’s Sect Master in such a state, along with one of the five Elders being killed and the other seriously injured, a thick air of depression hanging over the Sect, there was very little they could say or do to make matters more difficult.
On the other hand, Old Demon’s mood was a quite excited, and without waiting for Yang Kai’s request or permission he immediately took the initiative to gather the surrounding strands of Demonic Qi and absorb it into his Soul Breaker Awl, like a sponge soaking it up, continuously swallowing this evil gas.
This vicious and unbearable Demonic Qi was like a sweet delicacy to Old Demon.
Not only was Evil Qi nourishing for his Soul, it also allowed him to repair and enhance his Soul Breaker Awl.
The current ruinous state of High Heaven Pavilion was akin to a Heavenly paradise for him.
Approaching the edge of the Coiling Dragon Stream, as Yang Kai gazed downwards into the abyss below, it was like a staring at an immense black dragon, releasing an endless vicious hostility, like the entire canyon had become a birthplace for Demonic Qi.
“Did you find anything down there that would explain this Demonic Qi?” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow and asked.
“Old Servant didn’t find anything in particular, the only thing of note is that the further down one goes the more intense the Demonic Qi is; but now, this Demonic Qi is somewhat different than it was before.” Old Demon said.
“How is it different?” Yang Kai asked.
“Compared with the past it seems to be richer and purer. Before, there was some kind of energy which was suppressing the Demonic Qi. Young Master, it is likely that the Yang attribute energy you were absorbing from this place was responsible for suppressing this Demonic Qi, but now this suppression seems to have weakened a lot.”
Yang Kai nodded slightly and no longer spoke.
He had also realized that the Yang Qi here was much thinner than before.
After a moment, Yang Kai jumped down, falling through the air, he quickly pushed his True Qi and slowly stabilized his descent before diving into his secluded home.
The inside of his secluded cave didn’t appear to have the slightest damage, even all the embellishments and furnishings brought here by Su Yan and Xia Ning Chang remained unscathed.
The only thing of note that was different was that the two pots of flowers at the entrance had withered. These two pots were things he had acquired from Meng Wu Ya from The Contribution Hall counter; they had clearly been poisoned by the rich Demonic Qi and had long ago shriveled up and died.
Between the two flower pots was a small hole, where the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng had taken root, but now it was missing.
After the day of the battle, Su Yan had apparently not seen it anywhere in High Heaven Pavilion.
The Yin Yang Monster Ginseng was a spiritual object and already possessed its own consciousness, so when it became aware of the surrounding danger it had likely taken the initiative to hide on its own. It had probably sensed the emergence of the new Demon Lord and the rising Demonic Qi within the Coiling Dragon Stream and sought refuge somewhere.
But… it shouldn’t have run far.
It fed upon Yin and Yang Qi, so aside from nearby the Coiling Dragon Stream, there was no other place for it to go.
Closing his eyes and slowly releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai quickly searched for it nearby.
Sweeping the area with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai faintly felt a trace of danger radiating from the Coiling Dragon Stream below, so he did not dare search too deeply, only examining the upper regions.
After a moment, Yang Kai smiled lightly as he located the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng.
Indeed, as he expected, the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng had just hidden itself nearby in a mountain seam a few kilometers away.
Using his Divine Sense to contact it and transmit his own goodwill, the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng soon realized that a familiar aura had come and quickly raced towards his side.
After a few dozen breaths of time, the red and white Yin Yang Monster Ginseng re-appeared in front of Yang Kai and directly leapt into his chest, only revealing a portion of its body, its facial features revealing a scared and frightened expression.
Yang Kai couldn’t help chuckling as he stretched out a finger and fed it a drop of Yang Liquid; this caused the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng’s expression to relax significantly.
“Don’t worry, I’ll bring you to a new home, it is absolutely safe, no one will bother you there!” Yang Kai whispered and without waiting for it to respond directly placed it into the Black Book’s space.
The Black Book’s space was unable to load living creatures, but for rare herbs and flowers there wasn’t an issue. Although the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng had gained some sentience, in the end it was still just a type of exotic plant so staying inside the Black Book’s space was naturally no problem.
Once inside the huge space, the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng curiously looked around at this empty place and soon discovered the presence of the Myriad Drug Liquid.
Racing forward, it quickly took in the Myriad Drug Liquid.
Yang Kai’s heart immediately clenched as he quickly used his Divine Sense to partition the Black Book’s space, hiding this treasure within.
All of a sudden seeing this good thing disappear, the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng wore a wronged expression and jumped up, dashing around inside the Black Book’s space trying to find the Myriad Drug Liquid.
“Every ten days I’ll give you a drop so be obedient and stay here!” Yang Kai helplessly used his Divine Sense to convey this message. Sensing this, the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng finally somewhat begrudgingly settled down.
Finished handling the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng, Yang Kai walked through the rest of his secluded cave stowing things into the Black Book’s space, including all the precious treasures and Hallowed Artifacts he collected from the Endless Sea Island.
Everything in the cave was swiftly packed away, not leaving a single blade of grass behind.
Exiting his secluded cave, Yang Kai stared into the depths of the canyon at the rising Demonic Qi, pondering to himself.
Seeing through his thoughts, Old Demon tentatively asked, “Young Master, do you want to go down?”
“En.” Yang Kai nodded. Down below there was certainly some profound mystery, or else it would have been impossible for Ling Tai Xu’s Second Disciple to restore his strength and advance his Evil Cultivation Technique.
This place was the sight of an Earth shattering battle between High Heaven Pavilion’s Ancestral Founder and a powerful Demon Lord hundreds of years ago, Yang Kai naturally wanted to explore it to see if he could glean something.
This thick Demonic Qi acted as a barrier, blocking the majority of people from descending to the Coiling Dragon Stream’s true depths, even many Devil’s Path Cultivators would not be able to withstand this level of corrosive hostility.
But Yang Kai had Old Demon’s protection, coupled with his own Unyielding Golden Skeleton which was able to consume this Demonic Qi, it was quite possible he would be able to withstand this environment.
Thinking till here, Yang Kai finally resolved himself and directly jumped down into the canyon.
Old Demon couldn’t help being shocked once again at his young master’s boldness.
With the winds whistling past his ears, Yang Kai fell faster and faster, in the blink of an eye already descending a few thousand meters, plunging straight into the rolling black gas.
The next moment, Yang Kai suddenly felt something and quickly deployed his Flaming Yang Wings, quickly shooting back upwards, an expression of pain upon his face as he stared down into the canyon with a lingering fear.
In the instant he plummeted into the thick cloud of Demonic Qi, Yang Kai had felt that his soul had been attacked, as if a hidden aura of brutal and bloodthirsty hostility had surged towards him.
Invisible and dangerous, extremely difficult to prevent.
Even though Yang Kai had been cultivating his soul almost constantly, he still felt that this attack was quite fearsome.
Old Demon on the other hand had not sensed anything and remained completely unharmed.
Leaning against the Coiling Dragon Stream’s rocky wall, Yang Kai directed his sight towards the canyon’s bottom once more, hesitating for a moment before once more descending.
The all-encompassing black gas immediately wrapped around his body, as if it had a will of its own, an embodiment of hostility, giving Yang Kai an eerie feeling.
Once again, as soon as he penetrated this layer of black gas, the overwhelming soul attack hit him, like a million ants gnawing on his body while thousands of needles pierced into his mind, waves of maddening cries and howls filling his ears.
It was as if he had fallen into the depths of Hell.
Yang Kai’s expression cramped up, but fortunately, this time he had mentally prepared himself, and although it was still a painful experience for his soul, he was not completely helpless like before.
As his soul became further damaged, a tingling sensation sudden arose; the Soul Warming Lotus had once again played its role in a timely manner, sending a burst of cooling sensation to his mind, numbing the painful throbbing.
Hovering mid-air, Yang Kai took a deep breath, slowly adapting to this new environment before continuing his descent.
After falling another thousand meters or so, he felt the surrounding black gas’s attack on his soul strengthen sharply, bringing about the same unbearable kind of pain, forcing Yang Kai to halt once again.
Now stuck in place once again, Yang Kai surveyed his surroundings, but still could not see the bottom of the Coiling Dragon Stream.
Frowning, Yang Kai faintly felt that the pain in his soul was too much to bear.
The damage caused to his soul here was much worse than when he had been lost in the white mist field.
When he was trapped inside the white mist field his soul was constantly being damaged, but here, not only was he suffering pain, he was also being bombarded with a fierce hostility and all kinds of malicious intent, which was slowly trying to corrupt his mind.
In terms of hardening one’s soul and cultivating spiritual energy, this place was basically a paradise! All he had to do was descend slightly and Yang Kai could clearly feel his spiritual energy being enhanced.
If he could cultivate here for a long time, opening his Knowledge Sea would probably not be problem.
Unfortunately, Yang Kai understood that he could not afford to spend too much time here. If he did, his mind would probably be poisoned by the surrounding evil aura.
After a long period of silence, Yang Kai suddenly had a thought and asked Old Demon, “Do you know of any Soul Skills? One that can be used for defence would be best.”
“I do!” Old Demon readily responded.
“How come you never mentioned something like that?” Yang Kai asked somewhat bitterly.
“The martial skills and secret arts that Old Servant has mastered are all extremely evil, so Young Master has always been quite opposed to cultivating them.” Old Demon replied in a wronged tone.
“Is this soul defence skill like that too?” Inquired Yang Kai.
“Although it could be considered so, but if you cultivate here, then there would be no need for any cruel or evil methods. Since this place is thick with Demonic Qi it is actually ideal for cultivating this skill.”
“Good, no need for further nonsense then, quickly teach me this soul skill!”
“En…”
Old Demon’s memory was still somewhat garbled, so although it had been more than two years since he met with Yang Kai inside the Heaven’s Inheritance Cave, there was still a great many things he could not remember clearly. But in response to Yang Kai’s orders, Old Demon thought long and hard about this soul skill and eventually imparted all of to him.
Soul Palace!
According to Old Demon, if one wanted to cultivate this soul skill, one would have to find some sentient beings, torture them and finally kill them. Only after experiencing fear, hatred, and despair, would these people leave behind lingering souls after their deaths that could be used to cultivate the Soul Palace skill.
A cultivator would collect these remnant souls and forge them into a labyrinth within their own mind.
The rounds of torture and instilled grievances these souls experience were akin to tempering the bricks for the maze, the more resentment they had, the greater the strength of the labyrinth.
After successfully cultivating Soul Palace, the Knowledge Sea of a cultivator would appear to an outsider as a layered structure, filled with twists and turns. This soul skill’s biggest use was no doubt for defense.
But this skill could actually be thought of as a combination of offensive and defensive soul skills.
If one’s enemy used their Spiritual Energy to attack, their Divine Sense would fall into this maze and would never be able to find its way out, gradually being exhausted by the hidden grievances within the Soul Palace.
Soul Palace did not have a grand accomplishment stage because a cultivator could continuously surround their Knowledge Sea with more building blocks to further consolidate and expand the labyrinth.
Its purpose was to guard a cultivator’s Knowledge Sea tightly, forming an impregnable defense.
And this place, filled with such thick hostile Demonic Qi, was undoubtedly the most suitable place to forge Soul Palace bricks.
Studying this soul skill gradually made Yang Kai grin, quickly comprehending it in order to begin cultivating.
After a short while, Yang Kai became familiar with how to use his own Divine Sense to grasp this free floating hostility and use it as the cornerstones for casting his mental maze.
The entire process was actually quite simple, Yang Kai had already cultivated his Divine Sense considerably, so now he just needed to experiment in its usage.
Over the next few days, Yang Kai familiarized himself with manipulating his Divine Sense, pulling a ray of dark evil aura into his mind then according to his own thoughts and ideas transforming it into bricks and tiles, gradually constructing a fortress around his Knowledge Sea.
Just like building a towering palace in real life, wanting to build a palace in his mind followed the same principals, constructing the maze from the ground up.
Gradually becoming familiar with the process, his actions became faster and more agile.
For an entire month, Yang Kai remained within the Coiling Dragon Stream, cultivating his Soul Palace.
Grasping a wisp of demonic Qi with his Divine Sense, bringing it into his mind, and forging it into a brick. After repeating this process thousands of times, his mental labyrinth gradually took shape and slowly expanded.
After one month of painstaking cultivation, Yang Kai could clearly feel that his own Spiritual Energy had strengthened greatly. He could also spread his Divine Sense out a full twenty kilometers from himself now.
One’s Spiritual Energy was very difficult to cultivate, even for Immortal Ascension Boundary masters. Wanting to have great accomplishments with their Divine Sense was as difficult as ascending to the Heavens.
It was significantly harder than cultivating one’s body.
The most common method was to use a soul cultivating skill, or to consume Spiritual Energy enhancing precious treasures.
However, in Yang Kai’s case, loitering in the Coiling Dragon Stream under such harsh conditions to cultivate Soul Palace, and with the assistance of the Soul Warming Lotus, his Spiritual Energy becoming strong was an eventuality.
After another ten days or so, his Soul Palace skill had finally reached an intermediate accomplishment stage.
Although he was still unable to cultivate out his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai could still clearly feel that surrounding his mind was a thick layer of protection, keeping the most critical parts of his mind secure.
This extra layer of protection was formed from the evil energy emanating from the Coiling Dragon Stream.
But it did not affect Yang Kai.
Because when Yang Kai cultivated this soul skill, all the evil energy had been marked with his aura.
With his Soul Palace completed, Yang Kai naturally couldn’t wait to try it out.
At his current position within the Coiling Dragon Stream, the vicious hostility no longer made any impact on him.
So he once again dove down, faster and faster.
Two thousand meters, his Soul Palace was unshaken. Three thousand meters, his mental defences were still undamaged.
Falling to the deepest depths of the Coiling Dragon Stream, Yang Kai never again experienced any erosion from the surrounding hostility. Contemplating for a moment, Yang Kai suddenly realized.
This had nothing to do with his Soul Palace’s defence, but rather because he had used the Demonic Qi in the Coiling Dragon Stream to cultivate this Soul Skill in the first place.
His Soul defence and the surrounding Demonic Qi were essentially the same, how could it possible affect his Divine Sense?
“This soul skill is perfect.” Yang Kai grinned.
Taking a moment, Yang Kai clearly felt just how potent and frightening the evil atmosphere inside the Coiling Dragon Stream was. If he did not have this Soul Palace’s assistance, his Soul would likely have been instantly destroyed.
“The source of this Demonic Qi should be right ahead.” Old Demon suddenly said.
“This place is also the source of the Yang Qi!” Yang Kai was a bit delighted when he felt the Yang Origin Seal in his chest suddenly throb quite violently.
Whatever the Yang Qi source in front of him was, it was no doubt an extremely valuable treasure!
Thinking as such, he briskly moved forward.
The Coiling Dragon Stream was very long, seemingly unending.
As he walked along its depths, Yang Kai saw many bleached and broken bones; when he accidentally stepped on these bones an eerie snapping sound would ring out.
Obviously these were the bones of those who had been sealed within the Coiling Dragon Stream, the High Heaven Pavilion disciples who had been condemned to death here.
On both sides of the canyon there were some short trees that had dark fruits hanging from them.
It seems like in this forsaken place there were still plants which could grow. Yang Kai readily picked one of these fruits and soon found that it too was filled with Demonic Qi; cold to the touch, the fruit radiated a creepy aura.
“Evil Spirit Fruits… Heh, this thing really is here.” Old Demon muttered in surprise, “No wonder your Sect Master’s Second Disciple could survive down here for so long.”
“I had also been wondering what he was eating here for ten years.” Yang Kai smiled wryly before reaching out and plucking the few remaining fruits and tossing them into the Black Book’s space.
The Sect Master’s Second Disciple had not picked clean the fruits here; perhaps he thought that since he had raised these fruits here for the past ten years he should leave something behind as a memento.
But there were not many left in any case, only two or three, and these were not good things by any stretch, they all seemed to contain large amounts of evil energy within.
Continuing forward a while longer, soon Yang Kai spotted a murky figure within the dark Demonic Qi.
Yang Kai’s pupil couldn’t help but shrink, suddenly freezing in pace, gazing forward vigilantly, circulating his True Qi secretly.
In this place, he did not dare use his Divine Sense; once his Divine Sense left the protection of his Soul Palace, it would immediately be disintegrated, so he had been completely unaware of this figures presence until now.
But this figure gave Yang Kai a weird feeling.
It emitted not the slightest breath of life but was still sitting cross-legged, its body surrounding by a dozen meter thick ink black atmosphere that seemed to continuously be churning around it. This black gas completely obscured its true appearance.
“It’s dead!” Old Demon concluded.
Yang Kai nodded, slowly approaching it.
As he got closer, Yang Kai caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a chain attached to a collar wrapped around its neck. This chain wasn’t long, probably only about half a meter in total length.
Yang Kai couldn’t help being surprised.
Because he found that the chain and collar were no doubt the Yang attribute treasure he had sensed earlier. This thing was radiating an aura akin to the primordial Sun, many times more potent compared to his True Yang Yuan Qi.
Faintly, Yang Kai felt that his own True Qi was somewhat similar to the Yang aura being emitted from this collar.
However, this was not that surprising when he considered that he had absorbed a great deal of Yang Qi from the Coiling Dragon Stream to build his own foundation, and that Yang Qi had more than likely come from this collar.
This person’s clothing had long ago been turned to dust, and his physique had almost completely withered, but still, this seemingly fragile body still gave off an intimidating aura that made anyone who gazed upon it tremble lightly. All the Demonic Qi within the Coiling Dragon Stream had actually come from this single person’s body.
Even without looking closely, Yang Kai noticed that there was a huge, ferocious wound upon this person’s chest.
After Yang Kai stared at this figure for a while longer, he suddenly sucked in a cold breath and cried out, “I know who this man is!”
“Who?”
“This must be the Demon Lord who was beheaded by my Sect’s Ancestral Founder several hundreds of years ago!”
Old Demon was not entirely clear about the history of High Heaven Pavilion so Yang Kai brief recanted it for him.
Hearing that the Coiling Dragon Stream was formed when this Demon Lord was struck down by a single Earth shattering sword strike, Old Demon was suddenly greatly excited and said in a slightly agitated tone, “Even after hundreds of years, this Demon Lord’s flesh has not decayed! When he was alive, his strength must have been similar to this old master’s at his peak.”
Yang Kai was secretly unnerved.
This man had been dead for hundreds of years, and although his body has almost completely dried out, his physique was yet to be destroyed and had even given rise to such an extensive and potent Demonic Qi, enough to fill the entire Coiling Dragon Stream and beyond. Just how powerful was he when he was alive?
How powerful was his High Heaven Pavilion’s Ancestral Founder to have triumphed over him?
This level of strength was something Yang Kai couldn’t hope to match, at least not within a short period of time.
Carefully scanning his surroundings again, Yang Kai found a deeply worn impression, and after squatting down to examine it, he couldn’t help but grin slightly.
This place should be where his Sect Master’s Second Disciple had sat in cultivation for the past ten years. By perennially meditating here he must have left these traces behind.
In other words, his Sect Master’s Second Disciple should have grasped some profound insight or obtained some kind of powerful inheritance from this dead Demon Lord that enabled him to restore his strength and then a decade later escape his imprisonment.
The Sect Master banishing him to the Coiling Dragon Stream had simultaneously created this opportunity for him.
All things were truly impermanent; no one clearly could say what was truly a blessing or a curse.
“Young Master …” Old Demon suddenly shouted. His voice contained a trace of excitement and anticipation, “Can you remove and collect the chain artifact from this Demon Lord’s neck?”
“Of course!” Yang Kai had long seen just how extraordinary this collar was. It emitted an aura akin to the blazing sun, and there was no doubt it was a Yang attribute artifact designed specifically to restrain Demonic Qi. Yang Kai’s cultivation of the True Yang Secret Art had an innate fit with this artifact, so how could he simply let it go?
This artifact should be something High Heaven Pavilion’s Ancestral Founder had left behind to suppress this Demon Lord’s Demonic Qi, but after so many centuries the Sect Master’s Second Disciple must have done something to it to cause it to lose its abilities, so letting it remain here would serve no purpose.
“But even if I don’t accept it, what does that have to do with you?” Yang Kai asked suspiciously, wondering what Old Demon was up to.
“Heh heh…” Old Demon cackled happily, “If Young Master can remove this artifact, this Old Servant can try to possess this Demon Lord’s body.”
“You want to rob his body?” Yang Kai expression slightly changed.
“No no no…” Old Demon quickly denied, “This man’s Soul has long since been destroyed, leaving behind only a physique body, my Soul taking possession of it can’t be considered robbing.”
“How certain are you that you can succeed?”
“En, well somewhat. When he was alive he was also a Demon Lord, so his aura is similar to Old Servant’s, which should make it easier for Old Servant to operate his body.” Old Demon grinned, “However, whether it is supplanting someone’s consciousness or taking over someone else’s body, it is not as simple as Young Master believes. Each person’s body is like a container which has certain traits that, in principle, can only accommodate a particular Soul, so it is difficult for a different Soul to survive in such a container.”
“So why was it that time you first saw me you immediately tried to seize my body?” Yang Kai’s mouth curved into a strange smile as he remembered this event.
Old Demon simply laughed though, “That was out of necessity; I had been sealed there for many years. I had just woken up and not long after had met Young Master, but even if you had not resisted, there was a good chance I would have failed anyways.”
“What would the consequences have been?”
“If your Soul had been devoured by me, and I had gained control of your body, at best, Old Servant would have been able to survive half a month to a month before Young Master’s body would have rotted. At that time, Old Servant would have become a loose soul, wandering between the Heavens and the Earth.” Old Demon casually explained what would have happened if he had failed in his attempt to seize Yang Kai’s body, which sent a chill up his spine.
Thankfully, his Unyielding Golden Skeleton had played a role, or else he really would have died in vain.
“Even regardless of whether the possession was successful or not, Old Servant’s own Spiritual Energy would have been greatly consumed, so even those with strong Souls will not arbitrarily try to take over another’s body. Only when they find themselves in a desperate situation will they attempt it.” Old Demon explained patiently.
“Does this person’s body meet your requirements?”
“En! Old Servant should be able to take control of the person’s body, and once successful, Old Servant will be much stronger and more capable of helping Young Master than right now.” Old Demon said, secretly ashamed of himself; after spending two years together with Yang Kai, this thousand year old demon hadn’t actually played much of a role. Now seeing this tailor made body in front of him, naturally he was quite tempted.
“Good, I’m looking forward to it!” Yang Kai grinned and agreed to Old Demon’s request.
Walking up to this Demon Lord’s body, Yang Kai reached out and grabbed the collar and chain and poured his True Qi into it.
After less than half a day, the chain suddenly transformed into a golden light which disappeared into Yang Kai’s body.
Witnessing all this, Yang Kai was slightly stunned.
Originally he had thought it would be very time consuming to refine such a powerful artifact, and he was even ready to stay here for a month or two, but little did he suspect that the process would be so easy.
Once the chain had disappeared, it was like the black gas billowing around the Demon Lord’s body had suddenly been set free, and it ferociously burst forth, continuously shooting up the canyon. Not only that, the Demon Lord’s body also continued to pour out more Demonic Qi, seemingly in an endless stream, which created a truly terrifying scene.
The stunned Yang Kai quickly put on a serious expression and summoned out the Soul Breaker Awl.
Old Demon’s Soul quickly poured into this artifact, then drilled into the Demon Lord’s body, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The rolling evil aura all of a sudden calmed greatly, probably the result of Old Demon assuming control of this new body.
Yang Kai called out a few times but did not receive a response; however, from the way Demonic Qi overflowing from this Demon Lord’s body had just behaved, Old Demon should have already begun the process of assimilating it. It was just a question of how long this would take.
This was Old Demon’s battle to fight; there was nothing Yang Kai could do to help.
With no other choice, he could only sit down cross-legged and wait patiently.
With the evil aura so thick in this place, Yang Kai couldn’t even cultivate his Soul Palace skill. As soon as his Divine Sense left the confines of his mind, it would immediately be shredded. If he couldn’t use his Divine Sense, naturally there was no way to capture the surrounding hostility to forge building blocks.
Bored, Yang Kai took out the chain artifact which he had just managed to refine.
This artefact’s quality was superb and was cast from some unknown material, but since it was something left behind by High Heaven Pavilion’s Ancestral Founder to suppress this Demon Lord, its grade was certainly not low.
The chain itself was only about half a meter long and the collar itself was just big enough to fit around a human’s neck.
Inspecting it closer, Yang Kai discovered a small line of characters on the inside of the collar and muttered softly, “Devil Sealing Chain!”
Against an average cultivator, this artifact was likely useless, so it was probably only able to serve as an anti-devil artifact.
Examining this Devil Sealing Chain for a while, Yang Kai couldn’t help being stunned.
The Sect Master’s Second Disciple had obviously obtained something from this Demon Lord’s corpse which had allowed him to restore his strength, so Yang Kai was certain he knew about the existence of this Devil Sealing Chain, but he had still not removed or taken away this artifact. It was easy to imagine just how much this Devil Sealing Chain was able to restrain him.
If he could find an opportunity to slip this collar back onto his neck… whether he was a Devil King or a Demon Lord, it was almost certain his True Qi would be completely sealed.
This was an excellent tool to deal with him!
Thinking about this Martial Uncle of his who had become the new Demon Lord, Yang Kai made his decision.
This man had obstructed Ling Tai Xu martial path for ten years, and Yang Siye had been injured so severely by him that until now he had still not completely recovered.
It could even be said that Yang Kai being born with a congenital defect was also his fault.
Therefore, even if the two had never met before, there was no doubt he was an enemy.
Yang Kai would never allow his enemies to live good lives.
Wearing a cold expression, Yang Kai stowed the Devil Sealing Chain into his body again and would use his own True Qi to refine and repair it, so that one day it could display its full power again.
For several days, Old Demon had silently inhabited the Demon Lord’s body and did not respond no matter how Yang Kai called out.
Until the fifth day, when Old Demon’s weak voice suddenly sounded, “Young Master…”
“How is it?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
“I’m almost there.” Old Demon panted, his Spiritual Energy was obviously significantly depleted, but fortunately the entire region was filled with Demonic Qi, so he could always supplement himself, “However, Old Servant first needs to absorb all the Demonic Qi from this area or else this body will not be able to display any significant power.”
“How long will that take?”
“The process will be quite slow, at least a few months.”
“That’s too long… I can’t afford to wait for you here…” Yang Kai said as he stood up.
“Good, Young Master should attend to your own tasks and when Old Servant finishes here, he will find you once more.”
Before the conversation had even finished, Old Demon had already begun to devour the Demonic Qi floating within the Coiling Dragon Stream and somehow attracted it from his surroundings and pulled it straight into the Demon Lord’s body.
The Demon Lord’s body however was like a bottomless pit, and no matter how much Demonic Qi swept towards him, it effortlessly received it all.
After watching for a moment, Yang Kai nodded slightly before spreading his Flaming Yang Wings and soared up out of the Coiling Dragon Stream.
High Heaven Pavilion was in a depression.
The originally several thousand disciples had long ago dwindled. Many of them chose to leave out of fear of being implicated when the world learned that the new Demon Lord had come from the Coiling Dragon Stream, and still others obeyed Ling Tai Xu’s command to immediately disperse.
Throughout the whole High Heaven Pavilion, there was now only a hundred or so people left. These hundred people were High Heaven Pavilion’s most important core members and the Sect’s most loyal disciples.
No matter how Ling Tai Xu tried to persuade them, these people refused to abandon the Sect and vowed that they would live and die together with High Heaven Pavilion!
In the face of such determination, Ling Tai Xu was helpless and could only acquiesce.
Su Yan was, of course, one of these members, and over the course of the last two months had successfully promoted to the True Element Boundary Ninth Stage and began to prepare for her breakthrough to the Immortal Ascension Boundary.
Sitting face-to-face while engaged in their dual-cultivation, Yang Kai listened to Su Yan explain about the changes which had occurred over the past two months.
A bitter feeling crept into his heart.
This once proud Sect was now facing a crisis and was on the verge of dissolving. A result that many here could simply not accept, but even Ling Tai Xu was helpless to do anything to stop it. News that the Demon Lord had hailed from High Heaven Pavilion would sooner or later be discovered, and since he did not wish for those ordinary disciples to be unjustly involved, he could only first order them to disperse.
With such dramatic changes within High Heaven Pavilion, it was naturally impossible to conceal it from the nearby Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall’s eyes and ears.
Over the past days, the Hu Sisters had visited High Heaven Pavilion many times to see Su Yan and offer words of condolences, but also to inquire about Yang Kai.
However, others within the Blood Battle Gang were not as sympathetic. During the Inheritance Heaven’s Cave incident, Meng Wu Ya had fought the Blood Battle Gang’s ten strongest Immortal Ascension Boundary masters single handedly, which caused the Blood Battle Gang to lose a great deal of face. Additionally, many involved in that conflict, especially Long Zai Tian, had been seriously injured, and even until now were not able to completely recover, so now that it was High Heaven Pavilion’s turn, Long Zai Tian and several other Elders took the opportunity to add as much insult to injury as possible.
As this was happening, Sect Master Hu Man also took a policy of opening one eye and closing the other, letting Long Zai Tian act as he pleased.
The Storm Hall was also the same and actively recruited the displaced High Heaven Pavilion disciples while not so subtly coveting High Heaven Pavilion’s hundreds of years worth of heritage.
Of course, no one was more aware of the dire straits they were in than those within High Heaven Pavilion.
“Once the Sect’s dissolution is complete, where will we go?” Su Yan faintly sighed. She had grown up inside High Heaven Pavilion for so many years, and it had been her home, but now that this tragedy had suddenly struck. Even if she had a firm and steady temperament, she couldn’t help feeling somewhat sad and confused.
Hearing her words, Yang Kai smiled gently, squeezed her hands slightly as he brought her into his embrace. Then he intertwined their fingers and brought her face close to his own, and the depressed mood gradually became calm.
“If it comes to that, we can go to Medicine King’s Valley Hidden Cloud Peak and join up with Treasurer Meng and Little Senior Sister.” Yang Kai whispered.
Given Xiao Fu Sheng’s immense prestige, protecting a small group of people would be no problem.
Although he was a direct descendant of the Yang Family, he was forbidden to return right now, so naturally he couldn’t bring Su Yan there.
Su Yan nodded slightly and suddenly smiled sweetly as she said, “It has been a long time since I spoke with Junior Sister Xia. Are you two now…”
“Not yet,” Yang Kai said with an awkward laugh.
“You have to do your best, Junior Sister Xia is has a pure innocent and naive demeanor, on top of that she is incredibly cute, don’t let her fall into the hands of some other man.” Su Yan smiled meaningfully.
To which Yang Kai could only nod awkwardly.
At that time.
Suddenly, feeling a Divine Sense swept over them, Yang Kai’s expression slightly changed, and he gazed seriously in the direction the probe had come from, “A master cultivator has arrived!”
Su Yan quickly sat up, and a worried expression flashed across her cold and beautiful face flashed, and she quietly asked, “Where are they?”
“Ah… no need to be nervous, it’s an acquaintance.” Yang Kai frowned slightly in confusion.
He could clearly sense the arrival of this Immortal Ascension Boundary master. It was not that he had received some kind of information from the previous Divine Sense wave, but the other party had so blatantly used his Divine Sense that all of the High Heaven Pavilion Immortal Ascension Boundary masters should have felt it.
Mover, this person’s Divine Sense fluctuations were very familiar. At the very least, Yang Kai should have met him face to face before, it was just that he could not tell exactly whose Divine Sense it was.
“We should go take a look!” Yang Kai hesitated for a moment before saying when he detected many guards rushing over along with Ling Tai Xu and the remaining Elders, so he had Su Yan quickly left her house and flew over to join the others.
Before they had closed the distance, Yang Kai heard Ling Tai Xu call out, “Which friend has come to visit my High Hall Pavilion?”
From the distance, a somewhat old and plain voice responded, “Sect Master Ling!”
Hearing this voice, Yang Kai frowned even more and accelerated a bit before soon arriving at Ling Tai Xu and the four Elder’s side, and he took up a position behind Ling Tai Xu.
Seeing Yang Kai and Su Yan arrive side by side, a few of the Elder’s faces suddenly cramped up, especially Su Xuan Wu. Although he had already known that his granddaughter and Yang Kai certainly had something more than just a fellow disciple relationship between them, seeing it with his eyes, especially the lingering blush still present on Su Yan’s cold face, the Second Elder couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.
At that moment the Second Elder couldn’t help glaring at Yang Kai, as he seethed in anger!
Yang Kai just laughed and said nothing.
From the distance, a silhouette quickly approached and came to a stop in front of everyone.
After seeing this man’s appearance, Ling Tai Xu asked curiously, “Aren’t you the Dong Family’s… Wind Guardian?”
Chuckling lightly, the old man cupped his fists and said, “This old man is indeed who you say. I have taken the liberty to visit you, I hope you can forgive me for not sending prior notice.”
Yang Kai’s expression suddenly changed, and he quickly asked, “Senior, what exactly has happened?”
The Dong Family’s two Wind and Cloud Guards had always been accompanying Dong Qing Han in order to protect him, but now, all of sudden, at this critical time, the Wind Guard had made a trip to High Heaven Pavilion; apparently Dong Qing Han had a very important message to deliver to him.
Otherwise he would not have sent such an important figure to convey it.
The Wind Guard glanced over and nodded slightly before saying, “Young Master Yang, my Young Lord ordered me to inform you to leave High Heaven Pavilion as quickly as possible or you will encounter great danger.”
“Because of the Demon Lord?” Yang Kai frowned, as he realized the problem.
The Wind Guard was slightly surprised but quickly collected himself, “It seems you are already prepared.”
He now understood why, when he had swept High Heaven Pavilion with his Divine Sense, he had not noticed many people around, which was quite different from when he had last visited.
Ling Tai Xu nodded, “Naturally, we have prepared.”
The Wind Guard hastily followed up, “Then why are you all still here? You must leave quickly, the force on their way now is not one High Heaven Pavilion can resist.”
“Who is coming?” Su Xuan Wu hearing how seriously this old man was speaking couldn’t help but frown.
“It is… the Qiu Family!” The Wind Guard exclaimed.
“One of the Eight Great Families?” Wei Xi Tong and all the others were stunned.
“Correct, the Qiu Family is leading them. The Bai Family is also coming, along with members of the Purple Fern Valley. Against the combined might of these three forces, even my Dong Family will not be able to resist.” The Wind Guard sincerely entreated, “You should not try to act brave here, find somewhere to hide in the wilderness. So long as you preserve your life, there is still hope.”
The Demon Lord having come from High Heaven Pavilion was such a big deal that the Eight Great Families getting involved was something Yang Kai could understand, after all, in the war to come all of them would be involved, but the Bai Family and the Purple Fern Valley tagging along was unexpected.
Them joining this punitive force was likely because of Yang Kai defeating Bai Yun Feng last time, which caused him to lose face, so they had come specially to add insult to injury.
“They will be here soon; this Old Master had to hurry all the way here in order to arrive first, but I estimate that they will catch up within half a day.” The Wind Guard hurriedly explained before once more urging, “I have delivered the message, so I shall take my leave!”
Obviously he could not remain here. If the Qiu Family people discovered him, explaining his presence would be very troublesome.
As soon as the Wind Guard finished speaking he quickly turned and left, leaving behind a group of shocked people.
Wei Xi Tong hesitated, “Why did he come here to deliver such a warning, is he perhaps trying to deceive us?”
However, Ling Tai Xu shook his head lightly, “No, Yang Kai and his Young Master have some friendship; this warning was sent purely out of good intentions, there is no reason to doubt it.”
Hearing this, the four Elders looked towards Yang Kai in surprise, not understanding how he had become friends with someone of Dong Qing Han’s stature.
“Spread the word, all remaining High Heaven Pavilion members are to quickly pack their belongings and gather beside the Coiling Dragon Stream within an incense stick!” Ling Tai Xu ordered decisively.
Finished, he quickly redirected his sight, “Yang Kai, you stay.”
“Yes, Sect Master!”
The Four Elders having received their orders hurriedly left, leaving only Yang Kai and Ling Tai Xu behind.
“Do you remember the position of the Void Corridor we used last time?” Ling Tai Xu suddenly asked.
“Disciple remembers.”
“Good, proceed to that place and begin injecting your True Qi into it, the Spirit Array at that position will automatically activate once it has been charged. Once the Void Corridor is open, lead everyone away from here so that our pursuers cannot catch up. After leaving, destroyed the Spirit Array then find a place to settle down; remember, before the situation becomes clear, do not come out of hiding…”
“Grand Master are you not coming as well?” Yang Kai vaguely understood from the tone of his voice and couldn’t help looking surprised.
“My High Heaven Pavilion has not done anything wrong; it was just that this old master had not been decisive enough, so why must all of you suffer for that?” Ling Tai Xu chuckled lightly, “If this Old Master comes along with all of you, he will only make things more difficult for the survivors of High Heaven Pavilion. I will stay behind to confront the punitive force and explain everything to them, that it was my fault and mine alone that this new Demon Lord came into existence, and then ask them if it is necessary to destroy my Sect because of that. Their forces had all given rise to evil people, did they all have to suffer punishment because of that?”
“They have come all this way with such aggressive intent, will they really be willing to listen to reason?” Yang Kai asked anxiously.
“It matters not, I have made my decision!” Ling Tai Xu’s will was firm, suddenly showing a confident smile, “In any case, even if it turns into a fight, whether or not they are worthy to be my opponent… heh!”
Yang Kai was startled, staring for a moment, “Grand Master, you…”
“Indeed, it is all thanks to your assistance!” Ling Tai Xu nodded firmly.
Above Immortal Ascension Boundary! After spending ten long years shackled by his past, he had finally had a breakthrough; it was the only joyous event in the past few months for High Heaven Pavilion.
Knowing that his Grand Master had reached the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary, the worries within Yang Kai’s heart diminished greatly, and he no longer attempted to persuade him otherwise and instead quickly set off.
All those who had remained in High Heaven Pavilion had quickly assembled beside the Coiling Dragon Stream.
Yang Kai once again saw many familiar faces, including Su Mu whom he had not spoken with in over a year. What was more surprising was that Su Mu has also managed to raise his cultivation to the Separation and Reunion Boundary Ninth Stage.
“Senior Brother Yang…” Su Mu shouted out in excitement, followed closely behind by Li Yun Tian and the others.
“Long time no see!” Yang Kai smiled as he swept his eyes over the crowd. In addition to Su Mu, the others gathered here had also grown a lot. All of them had reached at least the Qi Transformation Stage.
“Heh heh… should I call you Senior Brother, or brother-in-law?” Su Mu looked at Yang Kai with a big grin on his face, apparently he already knew what had happened between Yang Kai and Su Yan.
“Up to you!” Yang Kai brushed his nose.
“Brother-in-law, you are too awesome!” Su Mu looked at Yang Kai and gave him a big thumbs up and quietly whispered “I’ve always thought that Elder Sister would end up all alone, I never expected that she would be conquered by you, astonishing! Quickly, tell me how you did it.”
However, just as those words slipped out, Su Yan glared towards them with an especially cold look, causing Su Mu’s neck to shrink up and his body to quiver, immediately silencing him.
“Is this everyone?” Wei Xi Tong, Su Xuan Wu and the other Elders glanced back and forth, loudly asking.
“Where is Sect Master?” He Bei Shui suddenly asked.
“Sect Master has decided to stay behind!” Yang Kai declared.
“What?” Wei Xi Tong and everyone else were stunned.
The four Elders all looked at each other, their eyes flashing a resolute light.
Wei Xi Tong quickly said, “Heh heh, if Sect Master has decided not to leave, then I will as well, Second Junior Brother, you escort everyone else out of here right now.”
But in response Su Xuan Wu just proudly laughed, “First Senior Brother must be joking, I also wish to follow Sect Master; Third Junior Brother, you should be the one to escort everyone here out!”
He Bei Shui also laughed and turned towards You Zi Zai, “Fifth Junior Brother, you’re the youngest of us, this responsibility falls to you.”
You Zi Zai glanced around, but since there was no Elder younger than he, all he could do was scratch his cheek and say, “I also will not leave.”
This group of old men glanced around at each other before bursting into laughter.
Su Xuan Wu quickly declared, “Then we shall all remain together! Yang Kai, come here!”
“Yes Elder Su!”
“Sect Master said you know the path out of here, so you and Su Yan lead everyone away, be sure to protect our High Heaven Pavilion’s inheritance!”
“Yes!”
“Good, now go!” Wei Xi Tong waved and then unhesitantly flew back towards High Heaven Pavilion, and the other three Elders quickly caught up.
“We must also go!” Yang Kai was not long-winded. Ling Tai Xu had broken through to the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary, and the four Elders also had good strength. Together they would be enough to resist any force which may come.
Not to mention, there was no guarantee that a fight would break out.
However, the people here must leave! These people were High Heaven Pavilion’s hope for the future. If they remained, it would only give Ling Tai Xu another thing to worry about.
More than a hundred people quickly followed behind Yang Kai towards a specific place above the Coiling Dragon Stream.
They soon arrived and passed through the Demonic Qi rising up from the abyss below, it was only a few thousand meters down to where the Spirit Array was.
Everyone’s face was pale and frightened, especially the younger generation disciples, they looked particularly miserable.
For these juniors who had not yet reached the True Element Boundary, standing beside the Coiling Dragon Stream was naturally unnerving.
“A few of you Martial Uncles with higher cultivation come down with me, Su Yan, you also come!” Yang Kai quickly shouted and jumped down into the canyon followed closely by seven or eight masters from the previous generations.
Searching for the location of the Spirit Array, Yang Kai carefully examined the cliff face.
“Martial Nephew, what are we doing here?” A thin bony Martial Uncle, a High Heaven Pavilion deacon with cultivation at the Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage, asked curiously.
“Looking for a Spirit Array…” Yang Kai replied quietly, and his eyes continued to search a moment before he later nodded, “It’s here!”
Everyone else turned their eyes towards where he was looking, but all they could see was bare rock, no different from everywhere else in the canyon.
“Please channel your True Qi into it!” Yang Kai said and placed a hand onto the cliff, while his True Qi surged ferociously forth.
His other hand grasped Su Yan’s.
Since the two of them had obtained the Joyous Unification Art inheritance, this was the first time they had acted together, and although this situation was not a battle, it was similar enough.
As their hands clasped, the pairs’ True Qi fluctuations suddenly intensified a grade and flowed significantly faster. This change also shocked the few Martial Uncles who had accompanied them.
However, none of them stopped to ask and instead followed Yang Kai’s example and poured their True Qi into the Spirit Array.
With nearly ten people working together, after a moment of effort, the huge rock face began to have a reaction.
This sudden change made everyone surprised.
Yang Kai, while continuing to channel his True Qi, quickly explained, “This place has a hidden Spirit Array which activates a Void corridor that allows one to instantaneously from here to a far away location, it is something that the Ancestral Founder had left behind for High Heaven Pavilion.
One of the seniors couldn’t resist asking, “How far away exactly?”
“Sect Master said this Void corridor leads to a place some ten thousand kilometers away, so once we enter it, we will be perfectly safe.”
Everyone present wore expressions of shock upon hearing this.
The existence of this Void corridor had far exceeded all of their knowledge and understanding by far.
“Our Sect has such a wondrous heritage?” That same Martial Uncle stuttered, and his eyes nearly popped out, “I never knew.”
“We… we also didn’t know!” The others in the crowd chimed in.
“Good, apart from Su Yan and me, everyone else has other tasks they must attend to. Two of your Martial Uncles must go ahead and check the situation on the other side, everyone else must go back up and bring down any disciples who have not yet reached the True Element Boundary!” Yang Kai swiftly ordered.
Although he was a member of the younger generation of disciples, but by virtue of him knowing all these secrets about the Sect, it was clear to everyone how much Ling Tai Xu valued him. Moreover, Yang Kai’s plans were meticulous and well thought out, so the seniors present did not have any issues with carrying them out.
Two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters, one at the First Stage and one at the Second, quickly entered the Void corridor.
Everyone else flew upwards.
Only Yang Kai and Su Yan remained behind to maintain the operation of the Spirit Array.
After a moment, Yang Kai smiled and suddenly said, “In fact, I’m a son of the Yang Family!
Su Yan’s beautiful eyes slightly flashed with surprise before asking, “You mean that cuckoo bird, Yang Family?”
Yang Kai simply nodded, “En.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” Su Yan looked at him curiously.
Yang Kai grinned, “Because I want to steal your heart, so to do that I must be honest with you!”
Listening to him say so in such a straightforward manner, Su Yan’s heart felt a burst of sweetness, and her cheeks blushed bright red as a shy expression filled her face.
The atmosphere suddenly turned tender; even if the two of them had already been together many times, but now the feelings between man and woman were truly begging to bud as they slowly became more familiar with each other, breaking down the barriers between one another one by one.
Yang Kai’s frankness and sincerity had given Su Yan a kind of happiness that could only be felt by one being pursued.
Which girl didn’t want to be sought for by the man she loved? Even Su Yan also had such desires.
Because they had obtained the Joyous Unification Art in the Heaven’s Inheritance Cave, Su Yan and Yang Kai, who were not familiar with each other at the time, were all of a sudden made inseparable, so even if she had obtained a kind of happiness from that, she had lost the opportunity to experience the joys of falling in love.
But now, Yang Kai was undoubtedly trying make that up to her while simultaneously trying to truly win Su Yan’s heart.
At this moment, Su Yan felt like even if they could not escape today’s tragedy, she would still be satisfied.
*Ehem…* Suddenly from above them an awkward cough sounded; Yang Kai looked up and saw one of his Martial Uncles carrying a High Heaven Pavilion disciple, dropping down next to the two, regardless of the disciple’s screams, he quickly threw him into the Void corridor.
“Don’t mind me… please do carry on…” This Martial Uncle was not blind; he could clearly see the delicate atmosphere between the two so he wasted no time flying back up.
But how could they simply continue? As soon he had left another arrived so all Yang Kai and Su Yan could do was smile wryly.
“I want to know everything about your past!” Su Yan declared as she blushed, not caring about if others were observing as she whispered into Yang Kai’s ear.
“Wait until we’ve safely left and settled down then I promise I’ll tell you.”
“Good!” Su Yan nodded gently before biting her lip, “I would also like to travel together with you…”
“Then, after everything is over, we’ll travel hand in hand, proudly touring the world!” Yang Kai grinned happily.
“En!” Su Yan smiled, her heart full of happiness, gently resting her head upon Yang Kai’s shoulder.
Inside the Coiling Dragon Stream, while Demonic Qi swirled about and the Sect above awaited an impending catastrophe, a young man and woman nestled close to each other, the wind gently rustling their clothes as they held one another.
This moment felt like should have lasted an eternity.
The High Heaven Pavilion disciples who occasional passed by awkwardly stared at the pair.
——
Ten Kilometers away from High Heaven Pavilion, a large group of people were fast approaching.
This group had no shortage of Immortal Ascension Boundary Ninth Stage masters, four of them in total, accompanied by no less than a dozen other Immortal Ascension Boundary masters.
In addition, the True Element Boundary and Separation and Reunion Boundary cultivators numbered another forty or fifty at least.
This group of people, under the leadership of a twenty some years old young woman, flew towards High Heaven Pavilion, and before long had arrived in front of the Sect’s borders.
“Is this the where the Demon Lord was born?” The incredibly beautiful young woman asked. She was tall and bright eyed, with pure white teeth and jade-like skin; she wore a luxurious purple dress but more than anything else, her noble temperament shined through.
With a light smile adorning her stunning face, a trace of disdain and doubt flashed across her eyes, lightly asking, “Isn’t this just a random Second-class Sect? How could it give rise to such a heaven defying figure like the new Demon Lord?”
Immediately, a young man dressed in white, his hand waving a folding fan, stepped forward, smiled and said, “Young Lady Qiu, although this place is indeed just a Second-class Sect, but inside there are many Hidden Dragons and Crouching Tigers along with powerful masters, it is not to be underestimated. The last time I and Brother Fan were here, we suffered a major loss!”
This white robed man was none other than the one Yang Kai had defeated last time, Bai Yun Feng.
After suffering a humiliating loss to Yang Kai, Bai Yun Feng had wanted to immediately seek revenge, but had been wary of Ling Tai Xu and Meng Wu Ya’s tyrannical strength, so he had not taken any action.
So when he heard that the Qiu Family would be sending a force to High Heaven Pavilion, he immediately volunteered to follow along, clearly looking for a chance to wipe clean the shame he had been dealt.
Although he was smiling warmly with Young Lady Qiu as he spoke, he still unconsciously remained three steps behind her, showing the utmost respectful demeanor with no trace of his usual big family eldest son’s arrogance, even the look in his eyes was extremely frank as they gazed upon this young woman’s slender shoulders without the slightest obscene light.
Despite his usual attitude, Bai Yun Feng was still a sensible person, he was the son of a first-class family, normally a shining star amongst his peers, but before the young lady in front of him, his status meant nothing.
In front of him was the Qiu Family’s eldest daughter, Young Lady Qiu Yi Meng.
How could his Bai Family possibly be compared with the Qiu Family?
Without even mentioned the Qiu Family’s strength and heritage, it was said that Qiu Yi Meng, only twenty-one years old this year, had already reached the True Element Boundary Ninth Stage; only a handful of people in this entire world’s younger generation had such phenomenal aptitude.
On top of that, she not only had extraordinary martial talent, she was also a stunning beauty.
With the Qiu Family having such an astounding young lady, amongst the other seven Great Families, with the exception of the Yang Family, which one of their young masters did not want to marry her?
But the Qiu Family’s Patriach, Qiu Shou Cheng, had already declared, “If you wish to marry Qiu Yi Meng, you can! But you must enter the Qiu Family! Also, any baby both from your union must be surnamed Qiu! Anyone who thinks this is wrong, walk away. I do not need you to be part of my lineage.”
This demand had immediately cut off a lot of people’s ambitions; but still, many young sons would linger all day around Qiu Yi Meng, enjoying being around such a beautiful young woman while fantasizing about being with her.
Qiu Yi Meng also maintained a sense of proportion, allowing these young masters to gather around her but never allowing any of them to get too close. In fact, the reason she had decided to lead this expedition to High Heaven Pavilion was because recently there had been too many of these annoying people around her, so she had deliberately taken on this task, with the excuse of it being a good life experience, and forced these young men to scatter.
Listening to what Bai Yun Feng said, Qiu Yi Meng laughed lightly, not even turning to look at him, stroking the hair next to her ear and replied, “I heard that the last time Young Master Bai came to High Heaven Pavilion he fought with one of its young disciples and even had his precious artifact destroyed, yes?”
Bai Yun Feng instantly became bitter, silently cursing this little slut in his heart while desperately maintaining a humble smile on his face, “This young master had embarrassed himself, Young Lady Qiu must be amused.”
As these two spoke, another beautiful young woman stepped forward to join them. This woman was quite petite, half a head shorter than Qiu Yi Meng, but her chest was another matter. It was fully rounded, immense by any standard, and unintentionally attracted the gazes of all those around her.
This young woman was clearly irritated, like a tiny enraged tiger, and angrily declared, “That little brat Yang Kai lives here? When Senior Brother Fan returned to Purple Fern Valley, he immediately went into retreat, saying he needed to cultivate lest even a second-class Sect’s disciple beat him and no one has seen him since. It’s all that Yang Kai’s fault! This time, I’ll make sure to capture him and make him pay!”
This Senior Brother Fan she mentioned was the no doubt that Fan Hong who had previously come to High Heaven Pavilion.
Luo Xiao Man and Fan Hong were both Elite Disciples of Purity Fern Valley and had grown up together, sharing deep roots between them, so now that she had not been able to see her sweetheart for the past several months, she naturally resented Yang Kai very much.
Qiu Yi Meng could only smile wryly and softly say, “Sister Xiao Man please control yourself, our main purpose here is to inquire about the Demon Lord’s information, everything else is secondary. Don’t make things more complicated for us!”
However, Luo Xiao Man was clearly not convinced and pouted, “I don’t care! In any case, I have to bring this Yang Kai kid back to Purple Fern Valley so that Senior Brother Fan and he can have a fair fight, that way the knot in Senior Brother’s heart can be resolved.”
Declaring so, she quickly went up, shook Qiu Yi Meng’s arm, and whined profusely, “Elder Sister Qiu, isn’t he just some second-class Sect disciple? When you’re taking care of the big matters I can just secretly bring people to capture him, it won’t disturb your plans, I promise.”
Qiu Yi Meng sighed and helplessly nodded, “Fine, he is, after all, still a young disciple, to think High Heaven Pavilion is so underwhelming…”
“Hee hee, Elder Sister Qiu is the best.” Luo Xiao Man happily smiled.
At that moment, Bai Yun Feng, who was standing nearby, lightly coughed, still grinning as he reminded, “Junior Sister Luo, it is not that I wish to dampen your moral and raise others’ prestige, but that Yang Kai is not someone so easily dealt with. A year ago he was only a Separation and Reunion Boundary cultivator, but he could already defeat me, and I and Brother Fan’s strength are quite similar. Now that a year has passed, the extent to which he has grown is difficult to determine, even if you bring him back to Purple Fern Valley and allow him to fight Brother Fan, I’m afraid…”
“Hmph! How can my Senior Brother Fan lose to some nobody from this backwater place!?” Luo Xiao Man grunted unhappily, her eyes dodging slightly sideways, “Big deal… I can just injure him enough to let Senior Brother Fan beat him.”
As these few juniors were talking, one of the Immortal Ascension Boundary Ninth Stage masters suddenly frowned, “Young Lady, something is wrong with the situation; there are far too few people here!”
Qiu Yi Meng’s expression slightly changed, and she asked seriously, “What do you mean?”
This old man quickly released his Divine Sense and a moment later bitterly replied, “It looks like High Heaven Pavilion anticipated that a crisis would befall it and has already made preparations. There are five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters gathered together to resist us while further behind them a lot of people have gathered together, they should be High Heaven Pavilion’s core younger generation disciples, it looks like they are preparing to escape!”
“In your dreams!” Qiu Yi Meng coldly snorted before quickly ordering, “Some of you go capture those five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters. If they dare to resist, kill without mercy! The rest of you come with me!”
“Yes!”
Because Bai Yun Feng had before informed them about the existence of Ling Tai Xu and Meng Wu Ya, two Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary masters, the Qiu Family had this time directly dispatched four Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary masters as well.
With these four people, the Qiu Family was confident it could deal with Ling Tai Xu and Meng Wu Ya.
This large group of people suddenly split into two forces and proceeded forward in an organized manner. The four Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary masters, followed by seven or eight other Immortal Ascension experts, flew straight towards Ling Tai Xu’s group while the rest, led by Qiu Yi Meng, raced towards the Coiling Dragon Stream.
Inside the Coiling Dragon Stream, Yang Kai and Su Yan were enjoying a moment of tenderness when suddenly his face suddenly changed, and he stared off into the distance.
“What happened?” Su Yan immediately noticed Yang Kai’s change and quickly asked.
“Someone has come!” Yang Kai’s expression became heavy, and he quickly shouted, “Everyone move faster, they’ve already found us.”
Up top, there were still around twenty younger generation disciples who had not been brought down, so when they heard Yang Kai’s cry, the several remaining Martial Uncles quickly pushed their True Qi, which dramatically increased their speed.
These remaining juniors were one after the other tossed into the Void corridor and disappeared.
A moment later, all of them had been safely evacuated.
“Martial Nephew…” The few remaining Martial Uncles quickly flew towards Yang Kai’s side, while vigilantly gazing towards their approaching enemies.
“You all go first!” Yang Kai ordered, “I’ll hold them off!”
“En!” No one hesitated, and all of them dove into the void corridor.
“Where are you running!?” From the distance, an angry voice roared, the sound hardly faded before a beam of light shot towards them.
They had arrived much faster than Yang Kai had imagined.
Yang Kai and Su Yan’s expressions both became serious. Together, they circulated their True Qi and released their own palm strikes towards the oncoming light.
With a muffled bang, the attacks collided, neutralizing each other, and soon after twenty or thirty figure appeared, which caused Yang Kai and Su Yan’s bodies to tremble slightly, retreat back a few tens of meters, and nearly fall down.
“That brat. Yang Kai… we meet again!” From within the crowd, the white robed Bai Yun Feng grimly cried.
Encountering his enemy once more, this time holding absolute superiority, naturally Bai Yun Feng would not give Yang Kai the slightest face.
“You are Yang Kai?” Luo Xiao Man looked him up and down disdainfully, “Is that it? I thought you’d have three heads and six arms, turns out you’re just an ordinary brat.”
Qiu Yi Meng grinned, also a bit of curious about this young kid, but when her sight landed on Su Yan, her eyes couldn’t help shrinking.
Qiu Yi Meng felt a lot of pressure from this icy young woman, like she was standing before an grand eternally snow-capped mountain.
A Master! And one who’s strength and cultivation were no less than hers! Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful eyes flashed a trace of wonder, never imagining that she would see such a Heaven defying talent in this tiny remote High Heaven Pavilion.
On top of that, it wasn’t just this woman’s strength which was outstanding, even her beauty could only be described as country destroying, compared with her own looks, Qiu Yi Meng actually couldn’t help feeling a sense of inferiority.
Qiu Yi Meng involuntarily snorted coldly and quickly dispersed the faint jealousy she felt in her heart.
“You two, this time we have come to your Sect to ask you some questions, I hope you won’t make things difficult for us.” Qiu Yi Meng took a deep breath and said to Yang Kai and Su Yan, her eyes quietly glancing towards the dark void corridor nearby.
Even with her knowledge and status, she did not understand what this unusual thing was, provoking her curiosity as she tried to examine it.
Yang Kai smiled back disdainfully, “If young miss has simply come to ask some question why bring so much combat strength to my High Heaven Pavilion?”
He had long ago sensed Ling Tai Xu and the Elders engaging in battle and was clear that they were facing many Immortal Ascension Boundary masters so it was obvious they had no intention of settling things peacefully.
However, Qiu Yi Meng did not mind his arrogant tone and still faintly smiled, “If we do not show some strength, would you obediently lay down your pride and come with us? This is just another method of negotiating but I advise you not to resist or else I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer.”
Yang Kai’s face was gloomy. Opposite him were twenty or thirty people, and a number of them were Immortal Ascension Boundary masters, all of whom had locked their Divine Senses onto him and Su Yan.
As soon as they made the slightest movement, they would immediately be ruthlessly attacked!
The void corridor was several tens of meters away and still open, but it would not be long before it closed on its own.
[Can we escape?] Yang Kai thought to himself as he turned to see Su Yan. Her expression was perfectly calm like still water. Even in the face of twenty or thirty masters, she remained indifferent.
“Since it seems you two don’t wish to cooperate, I have no choice, seize them! We’ll question them later.” Qiu Yi Meng decisively issued an order. From the beginning till now, the light and carefree smile never once left her face.
“Yes!” Two of the Immortal Ascension Boundary experts stepped out from behind her and contemptuously sneered towards Yang Kai and Su Yan as they approached.
Yang Kai clenched Su Yan’s delicate hand and whispered, “You go first, don’t worry about me, they won’t dare really harm me.”
Su Yan hesitated for a moment before nodding gently. In this moment of crisis, she did not stubbornly insist on remaining by Yang Kai’s side like some naive woman because she was aware of Yang Kai’s true identity. This was his greatest protection, but if she stayed behind, it would only make the situation worse.
In that instant, the two of them had understood each other’s intent.
The two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had already approached to within five meters.
But at that moment.
The Demonic Qi from the Coiled Dragon Stream suddenly surged and more than a dozen black as night dragons rushed up and struck the two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters.
This Demonic Qi contained a hidden unparalleled evil intent. The frontal impact of which did not deal much damage but instead attacked their Souls, which dazed them for a moment.
The two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were obviously stunned as they showed pained expressions. Their eyes suddenly turned red as their reason began to crumble, like they were viscous beasts which had suddenly been freed after being imprisoned for hundreds of years, instantly rampaging about at everyone around them!
Yang Kai’s eyes shined, as he realized that Old Demon down below must have felt his unease and used this method to help him.
Unfortunately, this was the limit of what Old Demon could do.
“Go!” Yang Kai roared and quickly pulled Su Yan towards the void corridor.
This sudden change had sent the Qiu Family, Bai Family, and Purple Fern Valley people into a state of shock. All of them were greatly unsettled by the malicious intent radiating from the Demonic Qi dragons.
Before they could collect themselves, Yang Kai and Su Yan had broken through their blockade and were quickly approaching the unknown dark channel.
“Stop them!” Qiu Yi Meng yelled and immediately pursued them while launching a fierce attack.
“Where are you trying to run!” Luo Xiao Man also hurriedly gave chase. The whole reason she had joined this expedition was to capture Yang Kai and bring him back to Purple Fern Valley so Fan Hong could beat him. How could she tolerate Yang Kai escaping now?
As soon as these two women moved the others came back to their senses and also activated their movement skills.
In a flash, Yang Kai and Su Yan had dove into the void corridor, Su Yan in front, Yang Kai behind.
Inside this chaotic channel, Yang Kai quickly turned around and ferociously pushed his True Qi, bombarding the corridor walls.
He wanted to destroy the passage in order to ensure that the High Heaven Pavilion members could safely escape.
But Qiu Yi Meng and her forces also possessed incredible speed, so more than half of them had managed to enter the void corridor before Yang Kai could shatter it.
Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man who were in the lead, looked around at the chaotic space and couldn’t help but tremble.
The two women had no idea where this was, but since Yang Kai had dared to come in there shouldn’t have been any danger.
Determined, Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man also launched their own attacks towards Yang Kai.
Inside the Void corridor, as their respective True Qis swirled about and collided, a violent explosion occurred, instantly rupturing the already chaotic space.
Soon after, Yang Kai opened his eyes and discovered he had left the void corridor.
The next moment, Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man appeared not far from his location. Each of them were separated by a fair distance. Suddenly coming to a strange unfamiliar environment, their eyes couldn’t help flashing with confusion, as they gazed around blankly, even momentarily forgetting to attack Yang Kai again.
*Shua…* Another silhouette showed up near the three people but after seeing this person, all of them involuntarily shivered.
This person was a Qui Family master Qiu Yi Meng had brought with her, possessing a cultivation level at the Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage.
But now, he only had half a body left. The other half was sent who knows where, cleaved off as if a master swordsman had split him neatly in two.
His body crashed to the ground, sending his five viscera and six organs scattering about, blood splashing out. It was a tragic sight.
“How…” Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful eyes shook while staring at this scene in utter disbelief. Luo Xiao Man also turned white and was almost unable to stop herself from vomiting, as she clutched her mouth and unsteadily moved towards Qiu Yi Meng.
“What kind of trick did you use?” Qiu Yi Meng suddenly looked up and coldly glared towards Yang Kai with her True Qi fluctuating.
Unable to understand the mysteries of the void corridor, she could only guess that Yang Kai had set some kind of trap in that chaotic space that had allowed him to kill one of her family’s masters, which greatly angered her.
An Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage cultivator, even for the Qiu Family, such a figure was not easy to train, and now he had actually wound up dead.
However, Yang Kai simply ignored her and instead looked around gloomily.
In addition to him and these two young women, there was actually no one else nearby. Forget the High Heaven Pavilion Uncles and Brothers who had entered the void corridor before him, even Su Yan who was only a step ahead of him was not here.
On top of that, this place was unfamiliar to him. It was definitely not the place Yang Kai and Ling Tai Xu had come to when they had used the void corridor before.
Releasing his Divine Sense and carefully checking a radius of twenty kilometers around him, a moment later, Yang Kai’s heart sank to the bottom!
Within his search radius there really were other people, but they were not his fellow High Heaven Pavilion Sect members but the True Element and Immortal Ascension cultivators who were formerly accompanying the two young women he was currently with. They had clearly managed to enter the void corridor along with him but had somehow been ejected and scattered about. The only fortunate thing was that there wasn’t too many of them, probably only a dozen or so, of which only two or three had reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary.
[Is it because of the fight inside the void corridor?] Yang Kai calmly analysed.
This was the only possibility; when their various True Qis had collided inside the void corridor, the resulting explosion had destroyed the corridor and thrown the people inside out into this strange land.
As for the half body on the ground, he was likely unlucky and had his other half lost somewhere inside the void corridor.
[What a close call!] Considering all this, Yang Kai couldn’t help oozing cold sweat.
[It seems like crossing the void is not something to be casually done, the slightest carelessness may lead to one dying without even knowing what happened.]
However, Su Yan should have safely rejoined the other High Heaven Pavilion members because she was in front of him. Thinking of this, Yang Kai breathed a sigh of relief.
“Hey, we asked you a question.” Luo Xiao Man’s face was still somewhat pale, but seeing Yang Kai standing there ignoring them, she couldn’t help but feel upset.
[A common disciple of some small backwater sect, how dare he! Even if he has some means, it’s still nothing much. Elder Sister Qiu is so powerful, beautiful, and famous, even the sons of those Eight Great Families all scramble for her attention but rarely receive a single word, but now Elder Sister Qiu takes the initiative to talk to him yet he refuses to answer her, how can he be so shameless?!]
Hearing this shout, Yang Kai awoke from his contemplation and glanced over towards the two young women, a cold light flashed across his eyes.
If it weren’t for this group of people’s sudden obstruction, he would right now be together with Su Yan, ten thousand kilometers away from danger.
Just when the two of them had agreed to join hands and travel the world together, they had shown up and messed everything up, and now he didn’t even know where Su Yan was. It was easy to imagine just how bad Yang Kai’s mood was right now.
“What is this place?” Qiu Yi Meng raised her delicate brow as she stood there, staring towards Yang Kai as she quietly asked.
She was tall, possessed slender legs, a full figure, a delicate face, and an especially soft and graceful waist. The purple dress she wore which hugged her body greatly provoked reverie in others.
In addition to that, she was the Qiu Family’s First Young Lady, possessing a noble and proud temperament, giving any young man around her an invisible sense of pressure, causing them to not dare show the slightest presumptuousness.
When she asked a question, she had always received an answer.
But Yang Kai simply showed her a disgusted and intolerant sneer, “What is this place? How the fuck should I know?”
Hearing his vulgar curses, the two young women were slightly surprised for a moment.
Luo Xiao Man’s beautiful face instantly turned red as she trembled, loudly scolding, “Smelly brat, how dare you talk to us like that!”
On the other hand, a mocking smile appeared on Qiu Yi Meng’s delicate face as she leisurely laughed and replied, “Interesting! There’s never been a man who dared scolded me like that, you are the first. If you don’t want to answer, it doesn’t matter, once I capture you I’ll slowly be able to ask.”
She was certain that all of this was some kind of plot Yang Kai had set up, but in truth Yang Kai really didn’t know where they were.
Yang Kai coldly snorted, circulated his True Qi, and the next moment activated his original Movement Skill and left a blur behind him as he quickly approached the two women.
He know that the three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had already discovered traces of Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man and were rapidly coming to join them, so Yang Kai wanted to grab one of them as a bargaining chip, or else once he was surrounded by those several Immortal Ascension Boundary masters things would become difficult.
Seeing him act so boldly, Luo Xiao Man screamed, “I’ll fight with you!”
A group of blue halos suddenly emerged from her small body, each of them possessing a soft yet potent strength, some of them protecting her body while the other sped towards Yang Kai.
However, Yang Kai’s momentum did not diminish, his True Qi fiercely burst out. Luo Xiao Man’s Martial Skill simply had no affect on him, not slowing him in the slightest as he crashed towards her like a falling meteor, which caused her to once again go pale.
“Be careful!” Qiu Yi Meng quickly shouted as she waved her hand and used some kind of strange Martial Skill which simultaneously pulled Luo Xiao Man back towards her.
Yang Kai suddenly paused and ferociously punched towards his side, which caused a violent True Qi explosion to ring out.
The strength of the explosion forced Yang Kai back slightly, but before he could fix his stance, Qiu Yi Meng suddenly laughed, and her delicate body floated towards him like a leaf upon the wind, lightly stepping through the air, seemingly slow but somehow approaching him extremely fast.
This was a very profound Movement Skill, once she had displayed it, Qiu Yi Meng’s whole person became ethereal, impossible to trace.
Yang Kai’s expression became dignified, and he quickly released his Divine Sense to determine Qiu Yi Meng’s exact position and sends out a Burning Sun’s Three Layer Blast.
Qiu Yi Meng suddenly reappeared, her glamorous face flashed a trace of shock as she ferociously pushed her True Qi.
With a dull thud, Yang Kai couldn’t help but retreat a few steps while Qiu Yi Meng still had a faint smile upon her face and casually looked Yang Kai up and down and leisurely said, “You have some skill, but it’s nothing much. If that’s the best you can do I advise you to obediently let me capture you or else you’ll just embarrass yourself.”
[Strong!]
Listening to her relaxed tone, Yang Kai couldn’t help but become gloomy. He had wanted to take either Qiu Yi Meng or Luo Xiao Man as a hostage, but the Qiu Family’s First Young Lady was really not an average opponent. If he used his full strength, he should still be able to beat her, but definitely not in a short time.
With the three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters quickly approaching, the odds were definitely against him.
“Trying to escape?” Qiu Yi Meng’s pair of beautiful eyes suddenly flashed a hint of pride as she saw through Yang Kai’s thoughts and didn’t wait for him to reply before rushing towards him, “With me here, do you think you can leave?”
“Fuck off!” Yang Kai raised his palms and unleashed his White Tiger Seal and Divine Ox Seal.
The crimson Tiger and Ox Monster Beasts flew out and bared their fangs towards Qiu Yi Meng.
Qiu Yi Meng however wasn’t intimidated, letting out an elegant laugh, “It seems you do have more to offer, no wonder Bai Yun Feng lost to you!”
As she spoke, she waved her hands as well, her True Qi became visible to the naked eye, and sent out a strong palm strike
Before the two beast phantoms could reach Qiu Yi Meng they were shattered by her counterattack.
Seeing this, Yang Kai grinned, summoned his Asura Sword, pulled his True Yang Yuan Qi back into his dantian, and drew upon the evil energy stored within his Unyielding Golden Skeleton.
The entire area was filled with a thick hostility, wrapping Yang Kai up in a black mist, only leaving a pair of scarlet eyes exuding a vicious light behind.
With the Asura Sword in hand, Yang Kai appeared akin to a demon.
Feeling this bloodthirsty aura, Qiu Yi Meng’s expression finally changed, crying out, “High Heaven Pavilion really does have Devil Path cultivators!”
Simultaneously, she stretched out her hand, condensed a ball of lightning condensed from a terrifying amount of True Qi at her fingertips, and sent it crashing towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai responded with a single sword strike.
As his sword swept out, colliding with the lightning ball, the once condensed ball exploded into numerous lightning bolts that snaked around him and enveloped an area of several tens of meters.
Qiu Yi Meng quickly retreated, no longer daring to show the slightest contempt, her expression instead becoming more and more serious.
Yang Kai walked forward as the lightning flashed all around him and struck his body, but his pace never slowed, and instead increased with each step, all of sudden rushing right in front of Qiu Yi Meng.
Feeling this overwhelming murderous intent, Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful face went pale, and she hastily shouted, “Barrier!”
In front of her small hands a shield appeared that instantly radiated a light which enveloped her.
Obviously it was a defensive artifact, and given how wealthy and powerful the Qiu Family was, its grade was definitely not low.
With a loud bang, the Asura Sword struck this shield, their two True Qis violently collided and sent out powerful shockwaves.
Qiu Yi Meng quickly withdrew several tens of meters, and her body trembled slightly. In this confrontation she apparently had suffered some light damage.
Looking down at the shield in her hands, Qiu Yi Meng laughed bitterly, “You really do have some skill. Just a trivial True Element Boundary Third Stage cultivator pushing me this far, it looks like I’ve underestimated you!”
Finished speaking, she received the small ancient shield back into her body and proceeded to form various seals with her hands, which caused bursts of various attributed energies to suddenly radiate from her body.
Wind, Cloud, Thunder, and Lightning gathered around her, forming a terrible energy storm.
Staring deeply at Yang Kai, a deep, unyielding pride flashed across her beautiful eyes.
“I have no time to play with you!” Yang Kai angrily roared and slashed his sword forward, seemingly in an attempt to cleave open a path of escape.
But Qiu Yi Meng had delayed him enough; the closest Immortal Ascension Boundary master managed to close in enough to launch a long distance attack.
Yang Kai cursed silently and dodged the incoming attack while rapidly displaying the first half of his Strike of Ten Thousand Swords.
The sky filled with Sword Qi, as Yang Kai swiftly swung his Asura Sword to guard his body with half of the countless Sword Qi blades while launching the other half forward to open a gap.
“Halt!” A booming voice arrogantly cried from his side, “You dare disrespect Young Lady Qiu, you court death!”
As this man furiously roared, he smashed all the Sword Qi blades Yang Kai had released, which simultaneously forced Yang Kai back.
A silhouette flashed in front of him as an Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage master blocked his way, as he glared coldly towards Yang Kai.
“Let’s see if you can back up your words!” Yang Kai didn’t show any fear and sneered as numerous Sword Qi blades once again gathered around him and shot forward while at the same time a number of blood red petals suddenly emerged from his body. Each one was an extremely sharp killing weapon.
Thousand Blossoming Blood Begonia!
After he had refined Falling Blossom Temple’s hallowed artifact, Yang Kai had actually never used it until now.
A full thousand red petals wrapped around his body. All of them responded freely to his will, just like his own arms. With a flash of red light, Yang Kai sent these red petals towards the Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage master.
“A Heaven Grade artifact!” The man had good vision and immediately saw how extraordinary this Thousand Blossoming Blood Begonia was, which set off a burst of storms inside his head. This Immortal Ascension master fully pushed his strength and sent out a rich and pure True Qi burst from his palms. A hazy mountain-like image suddenly appeared in front of him and suppressed the Thousand Blossoming Blood.
As they crashed together, the thousand petals scattered and flew off in all directions. The mountain-like image also flashed and dimmed greatly.
Taking this opportunity, Yang Kai lunged with his sword and stabbed towards the Immortal Ascension master. His opponent, having just unreservedly pushed his True Qi to display such a grand Martial Skill was temporarily stunned and was unable to catch his breath, but, after feeling the Asura Sword’s brutal hostility closing in, he hastily dodged.
However, this was all just Yang Kai’s trick. Not even sparing this master a second glance, he raced forward past him.
“Where are you trying to run!” Qiu Yi Meng’s screamed, her voice was still tinged with the same cold unyielding pride.
A huge force suddenly pulled him back. Yang Kai involuntarily halted and turned around to see Qiu Yi Meng’s four attribute field spread out a devastating energy, which created a kind of muddy swamp like region that dulled his movements and held back his body, not allowing him to break free.
“Damn slut!” Yang Kai’s expression changed, and he waved his sword and sent countless Sword Qi blades towards Qiu Yi Meng.
Qiu Yi Meng remained steadfast as a grin appeared on her face. The small shield artifact once again appeared in front of her and blocked Yang Kai’s attack.
But at that moment the thousand scattered blood red petals silently turned and raced towards Qiu Yi Meng.
“Elder Sister Qiu, watch out!” Luo Xiao Man quickly shouted and sent out a flash of light as she waved her hands. A large variety of weapons shot out from this light and intercepted the Thousand Blossoming Blood Begonia.
“There’s no way out, obediently let us capture you!” Qiu Yi Meng grinned proudly and laughed as she clashed with Yang Kai.
“Indeed! Demon child, you won’t escape today!” A new voice called out as two more figures appeared; the other two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had arrived.
Yang Kai’s expression was extremely gloomy as a faint frustration and helplessness appeared in his heart.
Against an Immortal Ascension Boundary master, if he used his full strength and exhausted all his artifacts and hidden means, he could at best create an opportunity to escape, but now that three of them had gathered, how could he resist?
[Too weak, I’m still too weak! A True Element Boundary Third Stage cultivation isn’t nearly enough!]
The two newly arrived Immortal Ascension Boundary masters didn’t waste any time talking with Yang Kai, and they instantly released their Martial Skills.
Yang Kai somehow managed to parry but still couldn’t fully defend himself. His chest and shoulder both received blows that broke bones, sending unbearable pain through his body and caused him to fall from the sky like a broken kite.
Glancing around, he found himself surrounded on all four sides; the three Immortal Ascension master plus Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man were all staring towards him.
While looking at the Asura Sword in his hands, even Qiu Yi Meng couldn’t help feeling a hint of greed while the others present all clearly had covetous eyes.
On top of that there were the thousand petals of the Thousand Blossoming Blood Begonia fluttering about. Both of these artifacts were rare treasures!
“Ready to surrender yet?” Qiu Yi Meng sneered towards Yang Kai, the three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters also glaring at him, coldly snorting as they released a silent pressure.
“Demon child, waste your cultivation or this old master will do it for you!” One of the Immortal Ascension masters coldly shouted.
In the face of this crisis, Yang Kai suddenly grinned deviously, the evil Qi flowing out from his body surging violently.
Although he had been surrounded, it was not like he didn’t have a chance to escape; Yang Kai felt that if he suddenly activated Unyielding Will and then used his Flaming Yang Wings, he could still manage to flee.
His speed while using his Flaming Yang Wings was much faster than an ordinary Immortal Ascension master, so as long as he could cope with their first wave of attacks he would have a chance.
With his supply of Myriad Drug Milk, even if he was gravely injured he could soon heal himself.
The question was, could he cope with their initial attacks? It would be a joint attack from all those present, and this caused Yang Kai no small pressure.
“Still refusing to cooperate!?” That Immortal Ascension Boundary master, seeing Yang Kai take no action, became impatient as he shouted angrily and immediately stepped forward.
Seeing this, Yang Kai made up his mind to take the risk when suddenly the three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters all looked up into the sky and frowned.
Yang Kai also wrinkled his brow after feeling an extremely tyrannical pressure approach from far away. This pressure was far greater than even the one these three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters exuded.
“Two Young Ladies, be carefully!” The three old masters completely ignored Yang Kai and instead took up a defensive stance in front of Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man. Their faces were all very grim.
A moment later, from the horizon, a small bright red light suddenly flashed, drawing the crowd’s attention as a figure rapidly flew towards them and came to a halt a few tens of meters away.
It was a young woman. A seductive and flirtatious young woman.
Her flame red clothes tightly hugged her body, emphasizing her graceful and enchanting figure, painting an extremely charming picture; her tender jade lotus-like arms were adorned only with a set of silver bracelets, her skin a pure shade of white, her legs long and slender, her waist thin contrary to her rounded bottom, on her feet were a pair of jade sandals, her ten delicate toes fully displayed.
Her crescent eyebrows highlighted her pair of bright eyes, which exuded a seductive light, seeming to contain an infinite charm; her delicate nose and cherry red lips, along with her creamy white cheeks gave her a glamorous air.
Her figure was slim to the point one would worry a light breeze would blow her away and break her.
At the corner of her eye was a tiny tear shaped mole, adding to her charm.
As she stood mid-air, her cheeks blushed a faint hint of red. She brought a sense of reverie to all who glanced upon her.
If Su Yan’s was the epitome of purity and Xia Ning Chang was the embodiment of innocence, this young woman represented the peak of seduction. Even just standing there, she exuded an aura of attraction and fascination!
The few men here could not remove their eyes from her. Regardless of whether they were young and old, they all involuntarily gulped and their breathing became rough.
Her watery eyes seemed to contain an endless allure, drawing in everyone’s soul.
Even Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man, despite both being beautiful women themselves, couldn’t help feeling a strange kind of attraction. Their cheeks flushed red as their heartbeats sped up.
However, Qiu Yi Meng soon woke up and secretly felt a slight shame in her heart. Glancing around at her surroundings, she gritted her teeth as she cursed, “Men really have no shame!”
The three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters all blushed with embarrassment as they wryly grinned, but none of them dared make any sudden moves; with the pressure they felt from this woman, how could her strength be low?
The woman swept her charming eyes over the people gathered here before finally stopping when she saw Yang Kai. Lightly biting her red lips, her brow furrowed, like she was struggling with something as she pondered for a moment before asking, “Which leader do you follow?”
Hearing her sweet sensual voice softly speak, everyone else present felt like something had gently gripped their hearts, invaded their souls, and instinctively drove them to worship the woman before them.
Having just managed to calm her unfamiliar impulses, everyone suddenly felt captivated once more. This time Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man were no exception, both of them blushed intensely and were unable to stop a soft moan from gently escaping their lips.
“Which leader?” Yang Kai on the other hand simply frowned and unconsciously answering her question with one of his own.
He really did not understand what this woman was asking.
“Hmm…” The woman’s eyes flashed a trace of surprise, apparently not expecting Yang Kai to collect himself so quickly. In her current state, if she didn’t say anything things were still manageable, but as soon as she spoke, no matter who it was, they would at least be somewhat affected by her charms. So how did this youth, covered in such thick hostility, manage to rid himself of such impulses?
In truth, Yang Kai who was continuously resisting the impulses brought on by his Joyous Unification Art and was simply more skilled at suppressing his urges than others.
“Forget it, I don’t have time to idly chat with you.” Whatever it was the woman was struggling with seemed to become more difficult to handle, and she whispered softly and threw out a pink ribbon type artifact that instantly wrapped around Yang Kai’s waist.
Yang Kai’s expression cramped, and he Gripped the Asura Sword tightly in his hand, preparing to fight back. However, before he could react, the woman had appeared in front of him, and from her small cherry red lips she spat out a strange fragrant breath.
The instant he smelled this odd scent, Yang Kai’s whole body felt limp, and he completely lost any power to resist.
[So strong! This woman has to have at least be a peak Immortal Ascension Boundary master! But she looks so young, how is that possible?]
“Since you’ve all seen me, I can’t let you leave!” The woman sighed faintly and flicked her wrist. A silver bracelet flew out towards the three half stunned Immortal Ascension Boundary masters.
As soon as the silver light flashed, the three Immortal Ascension masters Yang Kai had been struggling desperately with were reaped like wheat, instantly collapsing into pools of blood. All of them were unable to even resist.
The silver flash also streamed ruthlessly towards Qiu Yi Meng and Luo Xiao Man.
Suddenly thrust to the border between life and death, a pair of exquisite earrings hanging upon Qiu Yi Meng’s delicate ears exuded a bright glow. The light burst seemingly shocked her out of her stupor.
Instantaneously, Qiu Yi Meng took out her shield artifact and guarded herself.
With a loud bang, Qiu Yi Meng was flung backwards and vomited a mouthful of blood, but she somehow managed to stop the silver flash’s momentum.
The young woman wrinkled her brow. Her tender body trembled lightly, and a drop of blood leaked from where she had bit her lip, as she rapidly circulated her True Qi rapidly in order to maintain her current state.
No longer continuing to attack, she hurriedly pulled the tied up Yang Kai and raced off, like she couldn’t stand wasting another moment here.
Luo Xiao Man’s cheeks were flushed completely red. Her beautiful pair of eyes blurred over, and a series of light moans, she was clearly trying to suppress, constantly leaked from her lips. She tightly held her legs together as she felt a boundless pleasure spread throughout her body like lightning, that paralyzed her lower body and caused her body to quiver and tremble involuntarily. The heat below her navel suddenly erupted as a hot nectar unconsciously leaked from her secret place, wetting her soft silk underwear.
Her legs collapsed. She fell to her knees, with her cheeks glowing red hot, as she desperately gasped for breath, while her large shapely chest rapidly rose and fell, as if she were drowning in an unfamiliar peak, and high-pitched cries leaked from her mouth. Luo Xiao Man’s whole body convulsed in a strange and suggestive manner.
“Xiao Man… ke ke…” Qiu Yi Meng who had fallen nearby weakly called out.
“Wha…” Hearing this feeble cry, Luo Xiao Man suddenly came back to her senses, suddenly aware of her gaffe as she felt a clear wetness staining her thigh. Her beautiful face instantly went even redder.
She had no idea what had just happened. Only that that red clothed woman had uttered a few words before she fell into a fantastical illusion. In that illusion, she had cast off all of her dignity and shyness, as if she had becoming extremely discontent with being a constrained noble young woman and given in to her most primal and debased instincts, demanding the most immoral and obscene pleasures.
And that the object of these demands was actually the entire group of young people who had journeyed here together with her to capture Yang Kai!
Recalling the scene she had just fantasized, Luo Xiao Man immeasurable shame. Her pair of beautiful eyes teared up and soon filled with endless rage and humiliation!
“Xiao Man… please, help me!” Qiu Yi Meng’s begged, her True Qi violently fluctuated as her blood nearly flowed backwards. She was all but completely disabled, but seeing Luo Xiao Man sitting there blankly, as if in a stupor, she couldn’t help calling out again.
“Ah… en…” Luo Xiao Man staggered to her feet as a sudden breeze blew past, bringing a chilly sensation to her lower body. The cold stimulus sent an odd rush of pleasure through her which caused her body to tremble slightly.
“What happened, is something wrong?” Qiu Yi Meng looked at her confusedly, feeling like she was behaving oddly.
“N-n-nothing! It’s nothing!” Luo Xiao Man hurriedly replied and quickly walked towards Qiu Yi Meng while taking out a bottle of pills from her sleeve like she was asked and fed her one.
Finally examining her surroundings and noticing the bloody remains of the three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters who were with them, a chill ran up Luo Xiao Man’s back.
After a long time, Qiu Yi Meng exhaled a long breath.
“Elder Sister Qiu, who was that woman?” Luo Xiao Man asked quietly, while holding her knees to her chest as she sat on the ground, clearly still experiencing some lingering fear.
However, Qiu Yi Meng just slowly shook her head, “I don’t know, but no matter who she was, there’s no doubt she was a devilish bewitching woman. If we meet again, we have to be extremely careful.”
“Oh…” Luo Xiao Man somewhat guilty replied.
With a single sentence, she had let a pure girl who was completely unfamiliar with the acts between men and women fall into a depraved fantasy. Obviously, that woman cultivated some kind of incredible Seduction Technique; how could a woman who cultivated such a skill be anything good?
Not long after, the dozen or so scattered True Element Boundary cultivators of their group finally arrived, drawn here by the sounds of conflict.
Bai Yun Feng was also among them; obviously he had some good luck, not only did he not suffer any injuries in the collapse of the void corridor he also did not get caught up in the previous battle, therefore he was essentially unscathed.
Once they had regrouped and taken stock of their current situation, Qiu Yi Meng couldn’t help feeling her heart sink.
There were only ten of them left here, and the only three Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had all been killed!
“Let’s explore our immediate surroundings first and then make a plan!” Qiu Yi Meng swiftly issued instructions.
…
High above the group, a red shadow flew forward.
It was that unknown extremely seductive young woman. Her cultivation was truly amazing, flying through the air as fast as the wind, Yang Kai dangled behind her still tied up by her pink ribbon artifact with his strength completely sealed, unable to even struggle.
Finally escaping the tigers pursuing him, I’ve found myself firmly inside the wolf’s den, Yang Kai thought.
This woman had killed those people back there without batting an eye, not bothering to ask who they were or why they were there, just directly unleashing a killing strike. Clearly she was not some benevolent person, but then, why had she taken him with her?
Yang Kai found this incredibly puzzling.
Secretly trying to circulate his True Qi, he quickly found that he could not summon even a strand of it. His Divine Sense could still be used but in front of such a master, how could Yang Kai dare to release his Divine Sense.
“Don’t waste your time, you’ve inhaled my Soul Numbing Fragrance, you won’t be able to use your body’s strength or your True Qi unless your strength is higher than mine!” The young woman’s soft enchanting voice came from up ahead and caused Yang Kai’s heart to jump few times.
“Soul Numbing Fragrance?” Yang Kai laughed, “What a good name.”
[Why does this name sound like some kind of aphrodisiac?] Yang Kai cursed to himself. This person really was a demon seductress; with the faint blush upon her face coupled with the carnivorous light in her eyes, now that he had fallen into her hands, he had no idea when she would forcefully drain him of his essence and True Qi, leaving nothing but a husk behind!
Yang Kai instinctively felt that this woman cultivated some kind of one sided Yin Yang evil Secret Art.
If he really died like that, it would be too tragic!
“You’ve never heard of my Soul Numbing Fragrance?” The woman asked, slightly surprised.
[Should I know it?] Yang Kai did not answer and instead immediately let out a deep sigh, while trying to suppress the rolling blood in his chest, “Forget it, don’t speak to me anymore, or else I may just force myself upon you.”
The woman who had been wholeheartedly trying to endure some unknown hardship, after suddenly hearing Yang Kai boast so presumptuously towards her, actually couldn’t help giggling happily. Turning her charming eyes towards him, she wondered if this little brat, who didn’t even know about her Soul Numbing Fragrance, was not a disciple of the Holy Land?
As she swept her eyes over him, Yang Kai also glanced up towards her.
When this young woman smiled sweetly, her cheeks flushed slightly making her seem even more attractive.
As he stared, Yang Kai’s gaze involuntarily shifted in a certain direction, bringing the usually hidden scenery beneath her dress into view.
His heart suddenly skipped violently!
Clearly visible inside this young woman’s skirt was actually an erotic black lace lingerie. The thin fabric only narrowly hid her most sacred land and highlighted the infinite wonder which lay beyond it. A stark contrast with her long slender jade-like legs, making them even more appealing, like the finest works of pure white porcelain.
These two legs seemingly didn’t belong to a mortal woman, instead more akin to those of a Heavenly Fairy or Bewitching Demoness, exuding a charm that seemed to draw in one’s soul, violently stimulating the most primitive instincts within Yang Kai’s heart, his eyes instantly fogging over as his breath became rough.
Half confused, summoning strength and courage from some unknown place, Yang Kai actually stupidly stretched out his hand and directly touched the young woman’s calf and gently rubbed it to his heart’s content.
As if she was suddenly struck by lightning, the woman, who was still focusing most of her attention on maintaining her lucid state of mind, was caught off guard by Yang Kai touching her so intimately. Her beautiful face suddenly went pale as her cheeks blushed furiously. Her expression became more and more alluring, a bone softening moan leaked from her throat as her tender body trembled greatly.
“Smelly little brat!” The flustered woman hurriedly tried to compose herself as she grit her teeth and scolded; although she knew that Yang Kai’s offense was not due to his intention, but instead due in large part to her own current condition, being touched so wantonly was simply too much for her to bear.
As his big rough hand continued to intimately stroked her leg, it felt like a surge of lightning flooded into her, sending paralysing waves up her body; even if she was an Immortal Ascension Boundary master there was no way she could fly safely in such a condition.
With Yang Kai touching her so, it was like she flew in mid-air completely drunk.
“Let go already!” The young woman finally called out in frustration and used her other jade-like foot to kick Yang Kai’s shoulder, as she tugged on the pink ribbon, bringing Yang Kai up next to her.
Being jerked awake, Yang Kai fogged over eyes suddenly glimmered with a mad and cunning light, grinning maliciously, exhausting all the strength he could muster to reach out and embrace this temptress’s graceful waist.
“You…” The woman was shocked, apparently never imagining that Yang Kai would be able to regain his senses.
Yang Kai kept up his assault, his two hands tightly wrapping around the young woman’s slim waist, indulging in the pleasant sensation; her waist was so soft it really felt like she didn’t have a single bones, its elasticity was also superb, responding perfectly to his every touch.
His ten fingers wandered up and down her body, doing everything possible to tease and stimulate her senses; his mouth was also not polite, biting down gently onto her full trembling peaks across her red dress.
Yang Kai couldn’t use the slightest bit of his True Qi, nor could he summon any significant strength, but this bite was definitely a deadly attack.
As his hot breath passed through her clothes onto her tender body, she violently trembled, his bite soon changing into a gentle sucking, sending the young woman’s True Qi into a chaotic mess, causing her and Yang Kai to begin plummeting towards the ground.
“Let go of me already!” The woman screamed angrily, while desperately trying to endure the throbbing sensation coming from her heart. Her red lips bled from where she had bitten down on them, and her delicate hands gripped Yang Kai’s head, as she tried to push him off of her, but his incessant teasing was causing her to feel numb and powerless, sealing off all of her strength. Moreover, she felt more intoxicated the more time passed.
“Don’t wanna!” Yang Kai’s mouth continued biting and teasing her spring buds, constantly releasing hot breath onto her snow white skin. His snake like tongue coiled around these delicate fruits, unambiguously answering her.
There was something wrong with this devilish woman’s current state, as if she was suffering from some kind of extremely overbearing aphrodisiac. The slightest touch sent numbing waves of pleasure throughout her body, but still her strength was too great, flat out disqualifying him from being her opponent, so if he wanted to survive, Yang Kai had no choice but to use underhanded methods.
“Do you want to die? If you don’t let go right now we’ll both end up dead!” The young woman’s wavering voice cried out in-between her amorous moans as the two of them fast approached the ground. Falling from a height of several thousand meters, even if her cultivation was unfathomable she would still be smashed into a pool of blood.
“Heh heh, if I, the withering peony met his end here, so long as it’s with you, I am blessed!” Yang Kai grinned fearlessly as he teased her, like he didn’t care at all whether he lived or died.
The young woman’s expression finally became grim, silently cursing this shameless smelly brat. Taking a deep breath to calm the discomfort in her body and the raging impulses in her heart, she somehow managed to circulate her True Qi to slow their descent.
But this burst of True Qi she had summoned with all her will soon too collapsed from all the external stimuli she received.
With a heavy thud, Yang Kai and the woman hit the ground, still in each other’s embrace and tumbled several times before eventually coming to a halt.
Fortunately, her last ditch efforts had managed to greatly slow their descent. Thus, even though they were dishevelled, neither of them had sustained any major injuries.
Without the use of their True Qi, Yang Kai’s strength was far greater while locked in a grapple.
As the dust around them settled, Yang Kai desperately pinned this young woman under him, as he thrust his hands under her dress and groped towards her chest. His fingers accurately grasped her raised cherries and presumptuous kneaded them.
With her red clothes partial removed, the young woman’s shocking and alluring white chest revealed itself. Her two bountiful peaks trembled violently, like they were trying to break free of their remaining shackles and burst forth with their phenomenal elasticity on full display.
Thanks to his full force assault, the woman seemed to have completely lost her ability to resist. Her dream like eyes gently closed, and her long eyelashes quivered lightly. Her soft snake like body writhed and twisted beneath Yang Kai. Waves of barely suppressed moans filled with infinite desire leaked from her mouth.
Seemingly resigned to her fate, she no longer resisted, and her hands gently reached up and wrapped behind Yang Kai’s head, pulling him up from her chest, her cheeks were dyed the same cherry-red as her luscious pair of lips.
Yang Kai had also secretly been on guard against her Soul Numbing Fragrance, but seeing her take the initiative to cooperate with him, he no longer acted polite, pounced like a wolf, and deeply kissed her.
A sweet and delicious taste instantly spread from the tip of his tongue, but after only sampling this wondrous flavour, the woman suddenly opened her enchanting eyes, a sly and triumphant light flashed across them.
Startled, Yang Kai quickly separated his lips from hers.
“You…” Before he could finish speaking another word, Yang Kai felt the world spin before his eyes and instantly lost all consciousness, falling powerlessly onto the young woman’s chest.
The young woman panted heavily, desperately trying to calm the raging heat in her chest, and took quite some time before managing to regain her composure. Lifting Yang Kai off of her body and rolling him aside, she slowly sat up, grinding her silvery teeth fiercely. Her heart was filled with anger.
After a while though, she suddenly smiled, laughed, and leaked a sigh from her cherry red lips as she said to herself, “To think a naughty rouge like you is so skillful. You must definitely not be anything good! Hmph, this Queen’s beauty isn’t something one can taste so easily!”
Finished with her monologue, she quickly stood and tidied herself up before bitterly glancing towards the comatose Yang Kai lying nearby. While gripping her ribbon artifact, she flicked her wrist and wrapped him up once more before flying away again.
…
Yang Kai woke up in a daze and felt a dull pain radiating throughout his entire body, like he was being pricked by thousands of needles. His surroundings were dark, and only the faint flickering light of a torch stuck into a nearby wall provided any light.
A sweet lingering aroma wafted past his nose, it was… somehow familiar. It had the same taste as that flirtatious woman’s fragrance.
The scent was neither heavy nor light. It was truly a pleasant bouquet that carried with it a hint of an aphrodisiac effect.
Thinking about that devilish woman, Yang Kai suddenly sobered up and vigilantly examined his surroundings.
He quickly discovered the young woman sitting down not far away. Her True Qi surged ferociously, and her eyes closed as she circulated some kind of unknown Secret Art.
Checking his current physical condition, Yang Kai’s face couldn’t help cringing.
His strength had been mostly restored, and he was able to circulate his True Qi, but his entire body was somehow bound by a mysterious force, which left him completely immobile.
It seemed like he had been poisoned, and the more he revolved his True Qi the dizzier he became. Silently panicking, Yang Kai quickly ceased all his actions, not daring to act recklessly.
Glancing around, Yang Kai figured that right now he should be inside a cave somewhere. The cave was not deep, only a few tens of meters or so, and he was currently sitting cross legged in the innermost part of the cave. The young woman who had capture him sat just opposite him, clearly not wanting him to leave her sight.
Looking the young woman over once again, Yang Kai had to admit that she was very beautiful, and extremely attractive. Every part of her seemed to scream out the word ‘seductive’, especially the tiny tear shaped mole under her eyes. It was an extremely charming feature.
Seemingly aware of Yang Kai’s presumptuous gaze, the young woman slightly opened her eyes, and a faint haze still lingered within yet still contained a hint of spice, a watery exotic look that seemed to draw in one’s soul. Her cheeks flushed a delicate shade of pink, as she exhaled a hot breath.
“So you’ve woken up?” The young woman showed a sweet smile as she looked at Yang Kai with great interest.
“Elder Sister, what’s the meaning of all this?” Yang Kai gazed back at her unashamedly as a chuckle leaked from his mouth, “You’ve already imprisoned me. Is there any need to restrict my movements too?”
The woman laughed happily, “If I don’t tie you down, how could I stop you from running away?”
Yang Kai shamelessly shot back, “How could I be willing to run away? The night is still young, Junior Brother here is very reluctant to let Elder Sister be alone, in fact, if Elder Sister wants, all she has to do is say the word and Junior Brother would be willing to fulfil any of her requests, come hell or high water!”
The young woman frowned towards him, recalling how just before he had wantonly touched her, taking full advantage of her, causing her body to suddenly give rise to a burst of heat, and she grit her teeth in shame and anger.
However, Yang Kai’s eyes still blazed hot as fire as he licked his parched lips. His gaze presumptuously wandered all over the devilish women in front of him. An unparalleled greed and aggression seemed to radiate from him, and as if he couldn’t wait to strip the young woman before him naked, he boldly declared, “Actually, being honest with Elder Sister, when Junior Brother first laid eyes upon, he fell completely in love with her, so why doesn’t Elder Sister release me, and we can speak freely to each other? I really adore Elder Sister, in my heart she is my entire world, the sun, the moon, and the stars above!”
Hearing Yang Kai profess himself to her, the young woman couldn’t help but giggle and tremble lightly as she tried to hold back her laughter while silently cursing this shameless little brat’s ability to speak such a mouthful of nonsense. Her pure white neck flushed a light shade of pink.
Seeing how she didn’t react in annoyance or anger, Yang Kai’s courage bloated a lot. In any case, with things having come to this point and considering her overwhelming strength, he basically had no hope of escape, so he might as well focus on trying to learn why she had taken him in the first place.
If she had only wanted to kill him, there was no need for her to suffer his presence for this long. She could have ended this long ago.
The young woman’s sweet smile slowly gave way to an alluring one. Her delicate white hand covered her red lips, causing her to overflow with seductive charm and infinite beauty as she gently whispered, “If you like me so… how could you have been so rough with me? What would have happened if I had broken?”
[This little fox!] Yang Kai cursed in his heart, almost losing his composure once again.
Hurriedly steadying his mind, he grinned mischievously, “As the saying goes, ‘the first time traveling a path is unfamiliar, but the second is not!’ Earlier, Junior Brother had not known what would please Elder Sister, so he acted too abruptly, but now with that experience, I wonder if Elder Sister has any interest in trying again? This time Junior Brother guarantees he will completely satisfy her!”
“You shameless rogue!” The young woman ground her teeth as she cursed under her breath, her vision slightly blurred.
Yang Kai was no doubt the thickest skinned brat she had ever met, and his ability to spout sweet nonsense was also first-class. Coupled with his skillful teasing actions before, how could he be an innocent romantic? Clearly, he was a veteran in these types of affairs and had certainly plundered many young girls’ innocence.
Although she also thought of herself as a rather unrestrained woman, Yang Kai’s blatant provocations had even left her somewhat embarrassed, not to mention that, right now, her condition was somewhat unusual, so she really couldn’t stand listening to these words.
Holding down the unease in his heart, Yang Kai boldly asked, “Has Elder Sister been poisoned by some kind of aphrodisiac?”
Clearly, she was not in a normal state and suffered from something that made her desires run rampant, urging her to seek out a man in order to ease the heat in her body, and she was currently reaching the limits of her endurance. All of this greatly puzzled Yang Kai.
Slightly surprised for a moment, the young woman’s expression became a bit strained as she let out an awkward laugh, “You’re somewhat right, yet somewhat wrong.”
“Somewhat right, yet somewhat wrong?” Yang Kai parroted back in confusion.
“It is just like you think, but this poison is my own doing!” The woman looked at Yang Kai, apparently with no intention of concealing anything as she explained, “My state is a result of my Secret Art about to have a breakthrough; every time I break through I become like this, it’s just that while I was traveling, I was ambushed and suffered some injuries, so the side effects are more violent than normal, I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist them…”
“So you captured me just in case?” Yang Kai suddenly realized.
A storm suddenly swirled in his heart; what kind of Secret Art would send a woman into an aroused state when she was going to break through?
Devil Path Cultivation Technique! It was definitely a Devil Path Cultivation Technique!
There was also an eighty percent chance this Secret Art was a Yin-Yang absorbing technique!
Yang Kai’s blood immediately ran cold, if his essence was really absorbed by this devilish woman, it would really be a sad end.
“It’s just in case!” The woman nodded slightly, not even attempting to deny it.
Yang Kai was imprisoned at the moment, unable to fight back in any way, so she obviously had no need to lie.
“Why did you take me?”
“Back there, in addition to you, there were only three old man and two young women… aside from you, who else was there to catch?” The young woman smiled at him sweetly.
[Fuck, such bad luck! Why didn’t that little brat Bai Yun Feng keep up with us? If he had been there maybe I wouldn’t have been caught!]
“Being able to service Elder Sister, it is Junior Brother’s pleasure!” Yang Kai said, a cheap grin plastered on his face as she stared at her hotly, “There’s no need for you try to hard to resist, if you just relax and give in we can get started right away!”
The young woman once more hid her smile and quipped, “You really think of nothing but beauties? The Secret Art I cultivate is quite special, although if I don’t succeed here I can still continue to cultivate, but before I reach the grand accomplishment stage again, my cultivation speed will be reduced greatly. I’m just one step away so how could I give up now?”
Yang Kai’s eyes glimmered, flashing a resigned light, “So Elder Sister was so close to reaching perfection! Good good good, it looks like Elder Sister and Junior Brother really are fated together by the Heavens! If you cannot resist any more, just let Junior Brother handle the rest!”
On the inside, Yang Kai’s heart was pounding like a drum; although he didn’t know what consequences there would be if he was drained by this woman, just by seeing the power of the evil Secret Art she cultivated, the end results would certainly not be good.
So even though he might very well soon be intertwined with this great beauty, Yang Kai didn’t dare have the slightest bit of arousal.
The young woman stared deeply into Yang Kai’s eyes, her own flashing a trace of pity and regret, quietly asking, “What is your name?”
“Yang Kai!”
“Yang Kai…” The young woman whispered softly under her breath before nodding once, “I will remember it; my name is Shan Qing Luo!”
“It’s a pleasant sounding name…” Yang Kai couldn’t help wrinkling his brow. This name… it was like he had heard it somewhere before.
But considering this young woman’s extraordinary strength, she was no dobut some world famous master, having heard of her before was normal so Yang Kai did not think too deeply about it.
“I haven’t sealed up your True Qi, so prepare yourself, don’t lose your senses!” Shan Qing Luo sweetly laughed and reminded him, “Your wit is quick but I don’t know how well you can resist what comes next. Other than that… you’d better pray that I succeed!”
“Or else?” Yang Kai’s heart filled with a bitter feeling.
“Hehe…” Shan Qing Luo giggled lightly, not answering his question. Her watery eyes simply stared at Yang Kai for a moment before saying, “You’re fairly handsome, and although you spout too much nonsense and act like a shameless rogue, but that’s not your true nature, so Elder Sister still likes you somewhat!”
Done talking, her cheeks gave off a faint reddish hue. She didn’t give Yang Kai any time to react before she suddenly closed her eyes and rapidly circulated her True Qi again!
Yang Kai quickly shut his mouth and began to carefully scrutinize Shan Qing Luo, careful not to miss the slightest changes in her state.
From her previous words, it was not difficult for Yang Kai to infer that she was in a rather difficult situation right now, but the same could be said about him as well.
She had caught him and dragged him along with her as a last resort. Once she could not withstand the side effects brought on by her Secret Art reaching a breakthrough, she would surely devour him, and as a result… although he wasn’t quite sure, it would certainly not be good, or else why she have spoken so ominously just now?
Yang Kai vigilantly watched the scene before him.
All of a sudden, the cave was filled with light; looking up, Yang Kai saw the True Qi within Shan Qing Luo’s exquisite body surge forth with such intensity that it created a visible hue. As her True Qi flooded out and mixed with the surrounding air, it seemed to undergo an incredible change and transformed into crystal white threads.
These threads seemed to stretch out infinitely, scattering around Shan Qing Luo and wrapping her in a kind of chrysalis.
As time passed, the number of strands increased and the chrysalis became more and more dense.
Yang Kai was both startled and intrigued.
These strands… they felt similar to a spider’s thread, but also like silk. Each strand displayed incredible flexibility and toughness, while containing an astonishing amount of energy.
After roughly half an hour, Shan Qing Luo had become completely encased by these silk threads. Her flawless visage was no longer visible, while her tender, graceful body had been hidden away.
All that Yang Kai could see now was a white pupa-like shell.
It seems to really be a chrysalis, with Shan Qing Luo’s beautiful figure shrouded inside, an indistinct outline of her graceful physique vaguely visible through it.
A faint aroma slowly spread inside the cave. Inhaling a breath of this fragrance, Yang Kai’s heart suddenly began racing, his blood started boiling, and his breath quickly became ragged.
This intoxicating scent lightly wafting from Shan Qing Luo’s body was akin to the most pure aphrodisiac!
[This is bad!] Yang Kai screamed silently and quickly circulated his True Yang Secret Art in order to stabilize his mind.
The more he resisted, the more difficult it became.
As Yang Kai desperately struggled to maintain his composure, a burst of half stifled erotic moans came from Shan Qing Luo’s direction.
Yang Kai’s eyes instantly glazed over when her sweet voice reached his ears.
The scene around him suddenly changed. The dark cave was gone, and the flickering torch had also disappeared, while the white silk chrysalis which held Shan Qing Luo inside it had vanished without a trace.
His surroundings were now filled with a floral fragrance as flower petals lightly flitted about the room. The entire floor covered in a luxurious bright red carpet.
A burst of giggles suddenly tickled his ears. Looking around he quickly discovered a dozen thinly clad young girls. These girls only had their most precious places covered by sheer silk cloth, which added to their delicate and enticing charm.
As the sound of rhythmic music came from afar, the dozen girls smiled radiantly and invitingly towards Yang Kai, as they sang and danced around him.
These young girls each had their own unique style and appeal, but no matter which one it was they were astoundingly glamorous and alluring, free of worldly filth, some shy, some bold, some flirtatious, some reserved, some elegant…
The young girls danced around Yang Kai, constantly sending him appealing glances, very much like they were desperate to please him. Each of them gently brushed past him, as seductive moans leaked from their full red lips, whispering of their infinite desire.
Of course, as a man, Yang Kai’s breathing skyrocketed!
This amorous and sensual scene before him seemed to be able to dig out the hidden desires buried deep within one’s heart, causing a person to lose their ability to reason and devolve into a beast.
Releasing a deep growl from within his throat, Yang Kai desperately grabbed one of the girls, roaring fiercely as he threw her to the ground.
The girl winced slightly as her brow furrowed. Fighting back the pain from being treated so roughly, she still softly gazed towards Yang Kai, and the seductive moans still gently leaked from her lips. She stretched out her two graceful, dyed pink arms and wrapped them around his neck.
Yang Kai grinned back at her, a look of intense struggle appeared on his face before he resolutely punched her face.
After sending out this strike, the surrounding dozen girls all disappeared.
Yang Kai’s shirt was completely soaked in sweat and a chill gripping his heart.
This beautiful fantasy was an intense test of a person’s willpower, but fortunately for Yang Kai, although he had been affected by it, at the critical moment he had managed to come to his senses.
Though he had managed to break through the illusion, when Yang Kai stood up again and looked around, he discovered that the scene had not changed. The dozen young girls were definitely gone, but further into the hall a thin curtained bed had appeared.
Atop this bed lay an enchanting woman. One of her delicate hands lightly propped up her beautiful face as she let out a flirtatious laugh.
Through the hazy curtain, Yang Kai could vaguely make out her near transparent silk lingerie.
As her enticing giggles came from within the curtain, the woman lying atop the bed gently waved towards Yang Kai. Her sweet whisperings contained an infinite allure, which instantly caused Yang Kai’s consciousness to become foggy once more.
With his eyes glowing red, Yang Kai aggressively walked to the side of the bed and violently flung open the pink curtains.
What greeted his eyes was Shan Qing Luo lying on the fragrant bed. This devilish woman’s heavenly figure was on full display. Her flawless snow white skin, exquisite curves, rounded hips, with a blue silk dress half covering her seductive body, perfectly outlining her sensual figure and caused his blood to nearly boil over.
Laughing flirtatiously, she slowly got up. Her eyes radiated a thousand charms as she tenderly pulled Yang Kai into the bed and slowly pushed him down.
Yang Kai did not resist and allowed her to do as she pleased.
Shan Qing Luo eyes glimmered affectionately as she gently climbed atop Yang Kai’s body and slowly undid his robes. Her cheeks blushed a light pink, like she was lightly intoxicated, seemingly both shy and eager at once.
Shedding her thin silk dress next, Shan Qing Luo let out a light sigh. Her breath become quick as she gently bit her lip and lightly swayed her hips as she ever so slowly lowered them.
As he felt a soft, warm, moist sensation envelop him, Yang Kai’s hazy eyes suddenly trembled.
Involuntarily circulating his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art, a fierce suction originating in his nether region suddenly came.
Shan Qing Luo who was perched upon him all of a sudden uttered a miserable scream and the illusions around him instantly collapsed.
His eyes shot open, and Yang Kai once again found himself covered in cold sweat, still sitting in his original position, desperately trying to catch his breath.
Looking around, he saw Shan Qing Luo’s white silk chrysalis nearby. Yang Kai was not sure just how much time had passed, but as he circulated his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art, a huge amount of extremely pure energy originating from that white chrysalis continued to flow into his meridians.
He soon noticed that his dragon was still proudly roaring towards the Heavens.
So Yang Kai took a few breaths and slowly began calming his raging blood.
He had no idea why that illusion had suddenly collapsed, but he was certain that it had something to do with his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art.
Perhaps because his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art was a Dual Cultivation Technique, it had somehow been able to restrain Shan Qing Luo’s Seduction Technique, which allowed him to extricate himself from that illusion.
Upon examining his condition once more and discovering that he still could not move, a faint helplessness arose in his heart.
He was not anxious; although Shan Qing Luo seemed like a ruthless and devilish woman, in actual fact, she was quite easy to get along with, and she did not seem to have any murderous intent towards him.
After calming himself in various senses, Yang Kai put aside such concerns for now and focused on wholeheartedly operating his Joyous Unification Art.
Under the influence of his Joyous Unification Art, a continuous stream of pure energy flowed from Shan Qing Luo’s chrysalis and poured into Yang Kai’s meridians and dantian. Gradually, Yang Kai began to feel like he had some subtle yet profound connection with Shan Qing Luo.
As time went on, this feeling kept becoming stronger and stronger.
Then, all of a sudden, a cry rang out.
Yang Kai quickly opened his eyes and saw Shan Qing Luo’s pair of charming eyes staring at him with incredibly shock.
“Huh…” Yang Kai was thoroughly stunned.
“How did you get inside here?” Shan Qing Luo asked, her voice filled with confusion.
“What?” Yang Kai frowned, as he glanced around and discovered that he had somehow at some point come to be sitting opposite Shan Qing Luo, surrounded by a vast wondrous sea.
“Not ‘what’, you’re Divine Sense, it’s inside my Knowledge Sea!” Shan Qing Luo exclaimed, an aghast look fully displayed upon her beautiful face, “How did you break into my Knowledge Sea!?”
“I don’t know.” Yang Kai shook his head, looked down, and quickly discovered that he had no physical body. Instead, it appeared like his Divine Sense had somehow inadvertently broke into Shan Qing Luo’s Knowledge Sea.
Curiously sweeping his gaze over the Sea around him, Yang Kai somehow felt its incredibly surging destructive power, and he involuntarily marveled, “So this is your Knowledge Sea…”
“Get out!” Shan Qing Luo cried out in panic.
A person’s Knowledge Sea contained all of their most deeply hidden thoughts and secrets, once someone had their Knowledge Sea spied upon by another, it was equivalent to laying bear their entire being to them.
It was for this reason that everyone was extremely careful about guarding their Knowledge Sea.
Moreover, if one wanted to break into someone else’s Knowledge Sea it was not a simple task. Without mentioning defensive artifacts that shielded one’s Soul, there were also some special Soul Skills that could prevent others Divine Senses from intruding upon one’s Knowledge Sea.
For a master like Shan Qing Luo, how could she not have a powerful Soul defence artifact, and how could she not have cultivated a defensive type Soul Skill?
Yet despite all this, her Knowledge Sea had still been unknowingly penetrated by Yang Kai’s Divine Sense.
Between her bouts of confusion and shock, seeing Yang Kai still gazing around her Knowledge Sea, Shan Qing Luo couldn’t help screaming, “If you don’t leave right now I’ll make you stay here forever!”
Hearing this threat, Yang Kai finally awoke from his stupor and said, “No, please wait! It’s just that I’ve never seen a Knowledge Sea before, I was just curious.”
Finishing speaking, he quickly made his escape.
Once she was certain that Yang Kai’s Divine Sense had really left, Shan Qing Luo was reluctantly relieved. Just now had been an extremely dangerous crisis, if he had really seen through all of her secrets, it would have been tantamount to her being naked before him, all of her most intimate thoughts exposed to him.
Not only that, if their two Divine Senses had accidentally intersected, the consequences were hard to imagine.
Similar to when two people engaged in intimate contact between them, when two Souls blended together it produced a form of sensual pleasure, but the sensation it produced was thousands of times more potent, once it was experienced, it would instantly become all consuming, never again allowing the two to separate.
Shan Qing Luo was truly afraid that Yang Kai might engage in mischief or become entrenched within her, but fortunately he had simply been curious and had left soon after.
[How did he do it?]
Although Shan Qing Luo’s heart was filled with questions, right now she was in the process of breaking through, so naturally she could not divide her attention any further, suppressing her suspicions for the moment and concentrating on the circulation of her Secret Art.
Yang Kai also continued operating his Joyous Unification Art, prompting a clearly visible stream of energy to continuously flow from the white silk chrysalis into his bit by bit, increasing his strength.
Over time, the chrysalis gradually became smaller, slowly exposing the graceful figure hidden within.
Time flew by quickly.
In the blink of an eye, ten days had passed.
Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes and gradually stretched out his somewhat stiff body. A burst of popping sounds suddenly rang out and a seemingly endless pure energy burst forth from within him. His True Qi surged forth, bringing with it a wondrous and invigorating feeling.
True Element Boundary Fourth Stage!
These ten days of meditation along with the massive amount of pure energy he had obtained from Shan Qing Luo’s white silk chrysalis had allowed him in one fell swoop to break through.
Glancing around, Yang Kai saw the devilish woman lazily leaning against the wall directly opposite him. Her pair of beautiful eyes stared back at him with a complex look within them.
Yang Kai immediately jumped up in surprise, and his True Qi involuntarily circulated.
However, Shan Qing Luo simply laughed dryly, “If I wanted to kill you, you would have died long ago no matter how many lives you might have had.”
Yang Kai expression cramped up slightly, but thinking of how what she said was true, he relaxed immediately, laughing a bit wryly as he cupped his fists and said, “Thank you Elder Sister for not acting ruthlessly.”
Shan Qing Luo shook her head, “I never really wanted to kill you, capturing you was simply out of necessity.”
Between her words, she let out a hoarse cough, and her complexion became slightly pale.
“What happened to you?” Yang Kai frowned, feeling that this seductive woman now seemed much weaker than before, as if she had been seriously injured.
“Isn’t this all your doing!?” Shan Qing Luo grit her teeth as she glared miserably towards him.
“Me?” Yang Kai pointed to himself, his expression filled with confusion, unable to understand what she meant.
“What did you do to me?”
“I didn’t do anything.” Yang Kai responded somewhat dumbly.
“Then how did you siphon so much energy from me?” Shan Qing Luo ground her teeth in anger.
Yang Kai was stunned, thinking back on everything that had happened since he had been captured, wrinkling his brow as he said, “I fell into an illusion, encountered you, lay down with you, and then as we were together I started operating a certain Secret Art and shattered the illusion…”
Shan Qing Luo instantly blushed as she stared at him meaningfully, “With me?”
“En. You were extremely forward and bold.” Yang Kai nodded as he recalled Shan Qing Luo’s performance on the bed, unable to help to stop his blood from once again boiling up, “What a pity,” Yang Kai sighed, a depressed expression spread across his face.
“You little bastard!” Shan Qing Luo cursed lightly, her face now a bright crimson.
“Were you affected somehow?” Yang Kai frowned and asked.
“What do you think?” Shan Qing Luo’s breath quickened, her chest rose and fell so violently her proud peaks almost broke free from her red dress, “I was right on the cusp of breaking through when all of a sudden all of my energy was drained away by you… haha, would you call that not being affected?”
Yang Kai suddenly felt embarrassed and immediately apologized, “Is that so? I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“If you had, I would have killed you long ago.” Shan Qing Luo looked at him bitterly, “How could I have let you live until now?”
“Then did you manage to break through?” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed.
“No! Not only did I not break through, but I’ve also suffered a severe backlash from my Secret Art. I have no idea how long I’ll have to wait until my next opportunity to break through, and it’s all your fault!”
“How can you pin all the blame on me…” Yang Kai rubbed his nose, but upon hearing that her strength had suffered a massive hit, his demeanor suddenly became much more relaxed. Staring towards her with great meaning as he asked, “What is your current strength…”
“Equal to a True Element Boundary First Stage, are you satisfied now?” Shan Qing Luo snappily replied, a million kinds of anger filling her gaze.
“Haha! Oh really now!” Yang Kai laughed happily, his last trace of caution disappeared, and he completely relaxed his guard.
This seductive woman’s cultivation only being equivalent to a True Element Boundary First Stage meant her current strength was even lower than his own so he no longer had to worry so much about her.
Of course, although her current realm was lower than his, she was still an unparalleled master, so if they were really to fight, it was still uncertain who would ultimately win.
Fortunately, neither of them seemed to have any murderous intent at the moment, so there was no need to be overly tense.
“Haa… I can’t blame this all on you. If I hadn’t taken you captive, I never would have suffered this calamity! I brought this upon myself.” Shan Qing Luo quietly sighed.
Listening to her sincere admission, Yang Kai also felt some guilt and embarrassedly nodded, “Um… how should I say this… thank you for saving me back there.”
“So you do have some conscience you perverted brat.” Shan Qing Luo lightly laughed; it seems that this time’s failure had not caused any major impact to her confidence, her mood was not the slightest bit disturbed.
After chatting for a bit, Yang Kai suddenly stood up and said, “You take a rest, I’ll go find us something to eat.”
“Be careful out there…” Shan Qing Luo softly whispered.
Yang Kai looked back at her with astonishment, unsure of why this flirtatious woman was now suddenly so concerned about him, but he did not ponder long on this and quickly turned around and exited the cave.
After Yang Kai had left, Shan Qing Luo lightly sighed, an awkward expression filled her face as she placed her delicate white hands over her heart. Her face blushed a faint shade of pink, and she quickly asked herself, “This fluttering feeling within me… It couldn’t be…”
Shan Qing Luo had a special constitution which was related to her special cultivation technique. Although outwardly, she appeared flirtatious and seductive, for the rest of her life she would only be able to truly love one man, and she would only be able to truly be with him once.
Before then, the affection she would feel for him would continue to grow within her heart until the time was ripe and all she could think about was him; at that time, she would join herself with him.
And on that night, that man would die! At the same time, her Secret Art would reach the grand accomplishment stage.
Yang Kai’s previously presumptuous behaviour towards her, and more importantly his inadvertently entering into her Knowledge Sea, left behind a ray of his Divine Sense’s aura, which had subconsciously planted an unintended seed in her Soul.
It was a bud of love!
Her family line had an extremely sad and cruel fate, only having a single descendant per generation, and they were always women.
Every generation, these girls would experience this inhumane torture.
Shan Qing Luo had never forgotten her mother’s experience. Ever since she was born, all she could remember was how she had missed her father, the suffering and torment she constantly felt in her heart, and how she had ultimately died an unhappy death.
Because this feeling of love would only grow stronger the more time passed, leading her Secret Art to reach the grand accomplishment stage, Shan Qing Luo would have an intense and unforgettable passion engraved upon her soul.
One night together with her true love before he died at her hands!
What woman could accept this kind of fate?
And now, this ill fate had abruptly befallen her.
Biting her lip, Shan Qing Luo was at a loss, she had been caught completely by surprise and hadn’t had the slightest chance to prepare herself.
Originally, she had wanted to wait a few more years to find a suitable man to fall in love with, and then build a relationship with him. She had never expected to be thrust into this situation so suddenly and unexpectedly.
…
As a crackling sound burst out nearby and the scent of roasted meat wafted past her nose, Shan Qing Luo’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as she slowly opened her eyes.
Sitting a few meters in front of her was Yang Kai. He had raised a small fire and was carefully barbecuing some freshly caught game.
“You’re quite relaxed!” Yang Kai said with a light chuckled. When he had come back and discovered this young woman had actually fallen asleep, he couldn’t help being surprised.
“Why shouldn’t I relax, or were you planning on eating me too?” Shan Qing Luo smiled teasingly towards Yang Kai.
“Indeed! As long as you don’t mind.”
“I’m afraid you’re luck isn’t that good!” Shan Qing Luo laughed happily.
Soon after, the meat was fully cooked. Yang Kai tore off a piece and brought it over to Shan Qing Luo. Slowly tearing off a piece of the meat and delicately placing it into her mouth, she slowly and elegantly enjoyed her meal.
Yang Kai, on the other hand, quickly stuffed his face with as much meat as he could fit.
“How savage…” Shan Qing Luo muttered as she glared at him.
However, Yang Kai just grinned meaningfully, continuing to scarf down his food while asking, “I’ve been meaning to ask you but, where is this place?”
“Do you not even know where you are?” Shan Qing Luo looked at him suspiciously. “Are you not a disciple of the Holy Land?”
“Holy Land? What is this ‘Holy Land’?” Yang Kai asked in confusion.
When they had first met, Shan Qing Luo had also asked him which Leader he was a disciple of. Now thinking about it, her question probably had some relationship with this Holy Land she spoke of.
Suddenly thinking of something, Yang Kai hastily asked, “Is this not the Great Han Dynasty?”
Shan Qing Luo suddenly burst out into laughter, “Are you really that foolish? Of course this is the Great Han Dynasty!”
Yang Kai let out a sigh, “I really am that confused. I came to this place completely by accident.”
Seeing that he did not seem to be lying to her, Shan Qing Luo seriously answered him, “This is the Grey Cloud Holy Land!”
“Grey Cloud Holy Land? The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land!” Yang Kai was stunned, turning a shocked expression towards Shan Qing Luo.
“You really aren’t a disciple of the Holy Land!?” Shan Qing Luo’s beautiful face twisted somewhat, as she angrily shouted back, “What do you mean ‘Evil Land’, such an ugly name. What you call the devil’s path we call our way of life! We simply have a different way of thinking than your Great Families yet you see a need to divide the world up into such rigid ideologies, all that’s done is promote more conflict.”
“The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land… Shan Qing Luo…” Yang Kai’s thoughts raced as she suddenly recalled something. Turning towards the seductive woman before him, his eyes tightly squinted, and he hesitantly asked, “Demon Queen Shan Qing Luo?”
The Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land had one Devil Lord and Six Great Evil Kings.
Thunderbolt Beast King, Tyrannical Force King, Profound Yin Ghost King, Beguiling Demon Queen, Lightning Flash Shadow King, Annihilating Poison King!
Because of the new Devil Lord’s rise and the special relationship he shared with him, Yang Kai had also learned as much as he could about the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land, including the names of the six Great Evil Kings.
And among the six Great Evil Kings, there was only one woman!
No doubt this Beguiling Demon Queen was none other than the Heavenly beauty Shan Qing Luo before him!
No wonder when he heard her name before it had been somewhat familiar.
Seeing Yang Kai so surprised, Shan Qing Luo couldn’t help giggling and leisurely said, “Indeed, it is this Queen! Why, are you frightened now?”
“Oh?” Yang Kai suddenly grinned and indifferently looked down at her, “Why should I be afraid? I was just caught off guard by the fact that the most seductive woman in the world was in front of me.”
Looking Shan Qing Luo up and down completely once more, Yang Kai couldn’t help but be amazed.
There were many rumors about just how enchanting the Beguiling Demon Queen was, and now that he had really met her, it seems that these rumors weren’t unfounded, but she truly was the very definition of seduction.
“Seen enough yet, you little bastard!?” Shan Qing Luo felt his aggressive fiery gaze sweep over every inch of her body and was extremely uncomfortable, so she flicked her wrist and tossed the piece of beast meat in her hand towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai hastily dodged, which caused her ‘attack’ to hit nothing but air, and grinned sheepishly before sitting down again and sunk into deep thought.
Apparently, when the void corridor had collapsed, he had actually been sent to the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land. The distance between here and where Su Yan had been sent was extremely far, it was likely that he would not be able to reunite with her any time soon.
On top of that, since this was the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land, there was no doubt a lot of Devil Path cultivators around. How was he supposed to leave here safely?
It seems he would have to take advantage of his newfound relationship with Shan Qing Luo. Using her identity and status it shouldn’t be difficult for him to leave the Ash-Gray Cloud Evil Land.
Making up his mind, Yang Kai tore a piece of his barbecue and graciously handed it to the charming woman beside him.
Shan Qing Luo quickly turned her eyes away from his as she lightly muttered, “That thing is covered with your drool… I don’t want to eat it.”
“It’s not like my mouth has been over everything…” Yang Kai muttered, not trying to force her.
Shan Qing Luo’s breath suddenly became quicker, thinking back to when he had forced his lips onto hers, and she ground her teeth so hard they nearly broke.